Time In Between
by Aerith The Evenstar
Summary: This is the companion story to the one I'm working on with Crystalmaiden62, Swan's Love. It tells of the time Valerie spends with Jetfire and Astera since her parents are always busy. Rated T to be safe.
1. Day 1: First Impressions

ATE: You're all probably wondering what this story is exactly. Ever since my friend, **Crystalmaiden62** and I came up with the idea for her new story _Swan's_ _Love_, I came up with the idea of this story that would tell of the time that happened between the years that passed. If anyone's read _Swan's Love _then you'll know that it's based off of the movie _Swan Princes__s_, but using the characters (both canon and OCs) from _To Dance Among The Skies_. For those who have seen _Swan Princess_ this story will basically be the part in the movie where the song 'This Is My Idea' (basically showing the events that happened while Odette and Derek grew up), but it's a 'nicer version' of it, as **Crystalmaiden62** put it. And it's also a sort of companion story to _Swan's Love_. Enoy!

Declaimer: I don't own Transformers, Transformers Armada, or Swan Princess. I only on my OCs Valerie and Astera.

NOTE: due to the fact that Valerie is young in this story, she'll constantly mispronounce names and words (mainly for her POV) to reflect her age. It's been awhile since I've written a story with the OC's POV being in 3rd person. Here's a list of the names in case anyone gets confused:

Jetfire - Jeffire  
>Astera - Asera<br>Smokescreen/Hoist - Simokesween (Smokey)/ Hose  
>Cyclonus - Psychonus<p>

PS: If I could put more than two genres for this story they would be Humor, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, and Friendship.

* * *

><p><span>Time In-Between<span>

Chapter 1: Day One - First Impressions

A little girl gazed out the window of the moving car from where she sat in her car seat in the back. She appeared to be only 4 years old, with her ash blonde colored hair coming down to her shoulders. She wore a simple light pink dress that her mom had her wear that day with matching shoes to go with it. Her blue gaze wandering to the two people sitting at the front of the car. Her daddy was the driving the car, the sunlight making his slick blonde hair shine slightly, while her mommy sat beside him, her brown eyes full of happiness as she looked at daddy, and occasionally she would tuck her chin length light brown hair behind her ear. She didn't exactly know what was going on, but she heard bits and pieces of their conversation.

"Mommy?" The little girl asked. This caused her mommy to turn to look at her. "Where we going?"

"We're going to see Astera and Jetfire, Valerie." Her mommy answered, giving her a smile.

This confused the little girl known as Valerie.

"Asera and Jeffire? Who they?"

"They're friends of ours. They were one of the many people that came to see you after you were born. Jetfire happens to be Astera's son, and they're both looking forward to seeing you."

"Why we go see tem?"

"You'll see, Valerie."

Valerie was still confused. Why wouldn't her mommy tell her the reason they were going to see Jeffire and Asera? She turned her gaze back to the window and continued watching the unfamiliar scenery. She would admit that it was pretty, but she didn't recognize anything. Wherever this Jeffire and Asera lived, Valerie couldn't help but faintly notice something strange she felt. It felt…warm and welcoming…and it slowly got stronger the closer they got to their destination. She hugged her white stuffed bunny, who she had named Mr. Fwobbles. Maybe the feeling she felt was coming from her bunny, but for some reason it didn't feel like it.

Before she knew it Valerie felt the car stop moving and realized they must've been arrived at their destination. The door to her left opened to show mommy wearing a nice looking outfit. She searched her memory, remembering that she and daddy called the outfits they were wearing 'business suits'. Mommy reached over to undo the buckles that kept Valerie in her car seat before carefully pulling her out of the car. On reflex she wrapped her tiny arms around mommy's next (all the while holding onto Mr. Fwobbles) before looking around at her surroundings. All around her she could see green grass, but what stood out the most was the huge building (that seemed to be a cross between a really big house and a business building) up ahead, while surrounding them was a big courtyard that seemed to be attended to daily, along with a few trees around to make the place seem like it was friendly.

Why she thought of considering the whole place a castle she didn't know, but that was the word that popped into her head despite the fact that it didn't really look like a castle. There wasn't a drawbridge or pointed towers as she had always seen pictures of in the books her mommy would read to her before bedtime. It confused her.

Valerie looked up at the blue sky above, seeing that it was a nice clear day. She had always gazed up at the sky and never ceased to amaze her how fascinating it was to look at. She felt as if she had a connection to it or something like that, which confused her. She never understood why, but in the end she always would look up at the sky when she could (most of those times being before naptime).

Jetfire had seen the vehicle that belonged to Earth's peace ambassador members Thomas and Sarah Smith arrive before going to get his mother, Astera. What surprised him was when he found her at the bottom of the flight of steps he had been heading for, making him assume that she already knew that they had arrived. Astera smiled at him as her emotions showed through her violet optics.

"Shall we go greet them?"

"Why not?" Jetfire replied.

"You're mainly excited about seeing their daughter."

Jetfire couldn't help but smile behind his gold face mask at the mention of the ambassador members' daughter. The last time he had seen her was 4 years ago when she was still a newborn sparkling. He could still remember holding her in his arms for the first time and it had been during that time that he learned that she was his future sparkmate. The moment he had looked into her sky blue eyes he knew that she held his spark in her tiny hands, even if she wasn't aware of it yet.

"So what if I am?" He asked. "I've been looking forward to this day for 4 years."

Astera knew how her son felt about this. She was aware of the fact that the two ambassador members Mr. and Mrs. Smith were very busy people and that they were both concerned about their young daughter, so they had come to an agreement that would allow Valerie to say with them while her parents were away on their meetings. Not only would it be beneficial for them, but it would be beneficial for Jetfire so that he and Valerie could develop their engagement connection; for someday they would be the ones to unite Earth and their home planet Cybertron in peace when they both got married. The two planets had been waiting for an opportunity like this for years and both humans and transformers were all hoping that this would work.

Both mother and son walked outside to meet the Smiths, but Jetfire's spark swelled with joy when his gold optics caught the sight of young Valerie being placed on the ground by Sarah Smith. The instant her sky blue eyes spotted him she quickly hid behind her mother's legs, occasionally peeking at him before hiding from him. This confused Jetfire slightly. He hadn't expected Valerie to act like this since she would've been responding to him through their connection, but then again she was only 4 years old. It was probably normal for her to act like this around someone she felt like she didn't know.

As Valerie hid behind her mommy's legs she would peek at the two strangers that reminded her of those toys little boys seemed to like to play with. What were they called again? Oh, robots! That's what the two people before her reminded her of, or maybe those giant robots that she had seen when her parents had been watching the news about something she couldn't understand. But what confused her was that they were human size (or the size of her parents if not a little taller). Shouldn't they be bigger than this?

One of the robots appeared to be a pretty lady with glowing violet eyes which expressed the happy smile she wore on her face. Her whole body was a light green color with some light pink and yellow on her arms, legs, and head. She reminded Valerie of mommy in a way.

The other one was a bulky looking robot that was mostly white and gray and seemed to be a boy. His head was a red color with the only part of his face that she could see being his glowing gold eyes since everything below his eyes was covered up by a gold face mask. Unlike the lady robot next to him (who happened to be taller than her), he happened to have what looked to be gray wings on his back, making Valerie wonder if he could fly. There were parts of his body that looked as if they were from a rocket ship.

The bulky robot had looked at her with his gold eyes and they seemed to sparkle as if he were smiling at her from behind that gold mask of his. It was like he knew her and it made her feel funny. So she hid behind mommy's legs and every time she peeked at the two robots Valerie always found the bulky robot looking at her and she would end up hiding, only to repeat the process over again. She hugged Mr. Fwobbles close to her. The strange feeling she had felt during the car ride here had gotten stronger as soon as the two robots had come out of the huge building, but she couldn't pinpoint where exactly it was coming from.

"It's good to see you again, Thomas and Sarah." The lady robot said, her voice sounding kind and motherly.

"Same here." Daddy replied.

"It's been awhile." Mommy added.

"For you, yes, but for us…well, you get the idea." The lady robot giggled. Valerie was confused. What did the lady robot mean by what she said? She peeked around mommy's legs, but she hadn't been quick enough to hide since the lady robot spotted her with her violet eyes. "And is that young Valerie I see hiding?"

How did the lady robot know her name? Was she a mind reader or something?

"Yes, that would be our daughter." Daddy said.

"Valerie, why don't you introduce yourself to them?" Mommy asked as she looked down at her daughter hiding behind her.

"But mommy…" Valerie complained quietly.

This caused mommy to turn around before kneeling down to Valerie's eye level.

"What's wrong, sweetie?"

"I'm scared…"

Jetfire's audio receptors didn't miss what Valerie had quietly said and he felt his spark sink dejectedly. She was scared of them, including himself. To her, he and his mother were merely strangers to her and it was completely understandable that she would be scared of them, but the 4 year old girl wasn't even aware of how much her words had affected him. Astera was probably aware of Valerie's words, as well as how it made Jetfire feel.

"It's okay." Mommy told her. "They're not mean and they won't hurt you. They're our friends, Valerie. You like making friends, remember?" Valerie nodded subtly in response, wondering what mommy was trying to tell her. "And they want to be your friends as well."

Valerie finally understood what mommy was trying to tell her and she peeked at the two robots behind her. They wanted to be her friends? Mommy said they wouldn't hurt her, and if mommy and daddy trusted the robots, then shouldn't she? Mommy got up and placed her hands on Valerie's shoulders before turning her to face the two robots. She looked at the ground while occasionally looking up at both the lady robot and the bulky robot shyly. She hugged Mr. Fwobbles tightly as if the white stuffed bunny would reassure her before taking reluctant steps towards the two robots. The looks in both of their glowing eyes seemed to brighten when they saw her slowly make her way towards them like a cautious animal.

Jetfire felt hopeful as he watched Valerie come up to them. As soon as she stood in front of them both he and his mother knelt down so that they wouldn't seem so tall to the little girl. She seemed slightly wary as she watched them with her sky blue eyes. Astera smiled at the 4 year old so that she wouldn't feel uncomfortable.

"Hello there, young Valerie. It's nice to finally get to meet you after hearing all the wonderful things your parents told us about you." The lady robot said. "I'm Astera. And this is my son, Jetfire."

Valerie glanced at the two robots before pointing at the lady robot.

"Asera." Valerie said before pointing to the bulky robot. "Jeffire."

Jetfire couldn't help but grin behind his face mask when Valerie mispronounced his name as 'Jeffire'. Close enough. He wouldn't bother correcting her since she was still a sparkling. She'd learn to pronounce his name correctly as she got older.

"That's right." Astera said encouragingly. "Those are our names." She looked up and smiled at Valerie's parents who stood behind her. "You have such a beautiful sparkling."

Sparkly? What was a sparkly? Valerie turned to look at her parents behind her as if they would know the answer to her silent question. Apparently it was a good thing since mommy and daddy both smiled.

"Yes she is." Mommy agreed. "You'll be okay with taking care of her while we're away, right?"

"Of course!" Asera smiled. "We've been fine with this every since we made that agreement 4 years ago."

Valerie looked back and forth between her parents and Asera and Jeffire with a fearful look in her wide eyes.

"Mommy?" She asked, feeling confused and fearful. "Where you and daddy going?"

"We have to attend to a peace meeting with the other peace ambassador members." Daddy explained.

"We'll be away for a few weeks, so you'll be staying with Astera and Jetfire for the time being."

Valerie was even more fearful now. Mommy and daddy were going to leave her here with these two robots while they left? Were they abandoning her? Did she do something bad that would make them leave her with two strangers that they said were their friends? She didn't want to be left behind! She wanted to stay with her mommy and daddy, not with two people she barely even knew!

"Mommy! Daddy!" She started crying and occasionally sniffling. "Don't leave me here! Take me with you!"

"Valerie. It'll be okay." Mommy said, kneeling down in front of her daughter. "We'll be back soon, and if you're good we'll get you something. You can trust Astera and Jetfire. They'll protect you and make sure you stay safe."

This did little to calm Valerie down. Why would they need to protect her? She didn't want to be protected. She wanted to stay with her parents. Asera had to hold Valerie back as her parents drove away from them. She continued crying as she felt like she was in a different world, like Alice in Wonderland. She didn't belong here. Nothing was familiar except for the blue sky.

"Valerie, how about we go inside?" Asera asked, her voice calm and gentle as she talked to the crying 4 year old. "We can get you something to eat and I'm sure-"

Valerie didn't let Asera finish since she ran off in a random direction in the large courtyard. She didn't want to be here! She wanted to be with mommy and daddy, but they abandoned her here! As she continued running Valerie didn't notice that she dropped Mr. Fwobbles.

Jetfire watched Valerie run off and he couldn't help but feel sad. It made him feel horrible when she started crying over her parents leaving her for one of their meetings. She didn't know what was going on; she was too young to understand that her parents had a very important job that had duties that were just as important. He glanced at his mother to see the regretful look on her face.

"She doesn't trust us." Astera said quietly. "She doesn't understand what's going on or that she's only staying with us for a few weeks."

"She thinks they abandoned her here." Jetfire mused. "Poor kid…"

"Jetfire, go find her. She doesn't know her way around and she could easily get lost."

Jetfire turned to look at Astera and nodded before running off in the direction Valerie went. Apparently he was going the right way since he soon came across the white stuff bunny that the 4 year old had been holding earlier. He smiled sadly as he held the bunny with care in his hand.

"Don't worry, little guy. We'll find her soon." He said to the stuffed bunny as if it would come to life and talk right back to him. He frowned as he suddenly realized what he was doing. "Oh, right. You're just a toy."

Jetfire continued following the path he was on, but then he stopped as his audio receptors picked up a sound. He could hear someone crying, followed by sniffling. Valerie was nearby! He followed the sound to a group of large bushes and that was where he found the crying sparkling hiding. Jetfire knew that he would have to be careful on how he approached her. One wrong move and he would most likely lose whatever little trust she had in him. He glanced down at the stuffed bunny he held. Maybe if he returned it to her she's start to trust him. That was his best bet right now.

Jetfire went around the huge bushes so that he could have a clear view of the little girl hiding in the slight alcove the bushes formed. Her head shot up to look at him and he could see that her sky blue eyes were red and puffy from all the crying she had been doing so far. She buried her face in her arms that were hugging her legs to her chest. Jetfire sighed quietly before sitting against the wall across from her, bending his leg as he draped an arm across his knee. How was he supposed to talk to her? If Astera had been here she probably would've been able to talk to Valerie. After all, his mother had raised him on her own since his father had been offlined when he was only 50,000 years old. But right now he was on his own, so it was up to him to get Valerie to trust him. This was the only way to get the engagement connection to start developing between them. Plus, if he wanted to ever have sparklings of his own with his sparkmate, now would be the perfect time to practice on a 4 year old Valerie.

"Hey…I guess I found you." Jetfire started, feeling unsure if this was the right way to start a conversation with the upset and confused girl. "Nice place you got here."

Okay, that was probably the most stupidest thing he could say right now. He was surprised when he suddenly heard a barely audible giggle come from the 4 year old, but luckily for transformers their audio receptors were able to pick up faint sounds. He smiled a small smile behind his face mask, seeing that the quiet laugh was a good sign for him to continue.

"Mind if I joined you inside?" He asked.

At this Valerie peeked up at him before quickly hiding her face from him. She quietly hummed and Jetfire took that chance to carefully get inside the bushy alcove and sit down next to Valerie. Good thing that the alcove was big enough for the two of them to be in. He gazed down at her before holding out the white stuffed bunny in front of the little girl.

"I found this on the way here and thought I should give it back to you."

Valerie felt the soft and familiar fabric brush against her arm and looked up to find Jeffire holding Mr. Fwobbles out to her. Her eyes widened in surprised and she turned to look up at Jeffire to see if it was okay to take her stuffed bunny. Upon seeing Jeffire nodding Valerie took the toy and hugged it tightly to her.

"Mr. Fwobbles!" She said quietly in relief.

Jetfire smiled at seeing Valerie cheer up when she got her stuffed bunny back.

"Mr. Fwobbles?" He asked. "What kind of name is that?

At this Valerie looked back up at Jeffire.

"A good name." She said quietly. She frowned slightly. "You…don't like it?"

Jetfire's optics widened in surprise from Valerie's question and he shook his head.

"No, of course I like it. He's your bunny so you have every right to name him whatever you want." Jetfire laughed quietly at this before coming up with his next plan of action. "I, uh, forgot your name. Mind telling me what it was again?"

Valerie felt confused. Hadn't Jeffire heard what her name was earlier?

"It's Valerie."

"Oh, that's right! It was Valerie!" Jeffire exclaimed. Valerie hid her small smile behind Mr. Fwobbles. He wasn't so scary anymore. In fact, she almost found him…funny. The strange feeling, she noticed, was stronger and she realized that it seemed to be coming from the robot sitting next to her. She felt like she could trust him, but she didn't understand why. It still confused her. "So how old are you?"

Valerie lifted her hand up and held four fingers up for him to see.

"This many." She told him.

"So you're 4 years old! I happen to be 270,000 years old.

Valerie's eyes widened in surprise when she heard this.

"You old."

Jeffire chuckled.

"I'm not that old. By human standards I'd be considered 27 years old. That would be…" Jeffire gently grabbed both of Valerie's hands with his so that she showed all her fingers before holding all of his out. Then he realized that he didn't have enough and looked around to find seven small pebbles and placed them on the ground in front of them before lowering both of their fingers with the pebbles. "…this many."

Jetfire watched as Valerie stared at all their fingers and the seven pebbles on the ground in front of them, her brows furrowed as she tried to understand how much 27 looked compared to the four fingers she used to show her age. She seemed to understand since she looked back up at him with her sky blue eyes. Valerie slowly lifted her tiny hands up to grab one of his larger ones and brought it close to her so she could look at it, turning it this way and that as she examined every detail and joint of his metallic hand. Her tiny hands were soft, he noticed, and he thought that her curiosity was cute.

Valerie removed one of her hands from holding onto Jeffire's larger hand before having his palm face her. She placed the palm of her free hand against his, noticing how his hand was made of smooth metal, yet it wasn't cold like she had expected it to be. It was warm like her daddy and mommy's hand. Jeffire had five fingers on both of his hands like she did, he had arms, legs, and feet like she did. He had a face that he mostly hid behind his face mask and eyes like she did. He had emotions like she did. He was more than just a robot; he acted so much like a human, yet he wasn't. He was more than meets the eye.

"We the same." Valerie said quietly before looking up at Jeffire.

"We are." Jetfire agreed, smiling behind his face mask. She was starting to trust him. That was good. "We may seem to be different than each other, but we have so many similarities that make us the same. We're not so different than you think."

Jetfire's spark filled with joy when she suddenly smiled a small smile at him.

"No different. Same."

"See? That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

Valerie giggled quietly from what he said. At least he managed to cheer her up.

"You funny." She said.

"I try." Jetfire agreed. "Maybe I should introduce you to one of my friends that happens to live here. Would you be okay with that?"

Valerie looked down at her stuffed bunny as she thought about her answer before nodding.

"Are they…like you?"

"Of course he is. You don't need to worry about a single thing. I know you'll like him." Jetfire crawled out of the bushy alcove they had been sitting in before pulling Valerie out and held her in his arms. "You're okay with me carrying you, right?"

Valerie nodded. It didn't matter if Jeffire carried her or not, as long as she had Mr. Fwobbles she'd be fine. She looked around curiously as the robot made his way through the large courtyard, seeing all sorts of pretty colorful flowers and could faintly smell their sweet scent through her sniffling nose. She could feel a nice gentle breeze that managed to pick up a few strands of her hair and blow they around. She hadn't realized how nice the courtyard was until now since she had been too upset to notice it earlier. Valerie also noticed the way Jeffire carried her. Mommy had always held her and carried her like this before, but it didn't seem to compare with the way he was carrying her. He held her with so much care and was so gentle with her as if she were the most precious thing in the whole world. What was it about Jeffire that made her trust him? She hadn't known his for very long, but then again mommy and daddy had told her that he and Asera had come to see her when she was just born. Maybe that was why.

Jetfire couldn't help but smile behind his face mask as he watched Valerie look around the courtyard, but occasionally she would look up. He didn't really think much of it since they soon came to the front of the estate and he took the little girl inside. As Jetfire made his way down the hallways in search of his friend Valerie would hide her face from the few humans and transformers they passed by. She really was a shy girl, he mused.

'_Now where could he be?_' Jetfire thought. '_He should be around here somewhere._'

"Hey, Jetfire! I've been looking all over for ya!"

Jetfire turned around to find his friend coming towards him. He smiled behind his face mask.

"Funny since I was trying to find you as well." Jetfire stated.

"Well now that I found you I was wondering if you wanted to go get some energon."

Jetfire shook his head.

"I can't really do that right now since I happen to be carrying precious cargo at the moment."

Valerie pulled her face away from where she had been hiding it in Jeffire's neck and turned to look at where the new voice was coming from, only to see a orange robot with red eyes and what looked to be a crane hanging over his right shoulder. She hid her face in Jeffire's neck again.

Jetfire saw this and couldn't help but chuckle before using the hand he had placed on Valerie's back to gently rub it. He wanted to make her feel as comfortable as possible at the moment.

"Hey, it's okay, Valerie." He cooed, trying to reassure the little sparkling. "This is my friend I was telling you about awhile ago. Won't you say hi to him?"

Valerie looked at Jeffire's face before turning back to look at the orange robot she had seen. She stared at him. This was Jeffire's friend?

"…Hi." She said quietly, hugging Mr. Fwobbles.

At this the orange robot smiled at her before letting out a jolly laugh.

"Why hello there, little one. My name's Smokescreen." The orange robot greeted.

"Simokesween?"

"No, 'Smoke-Screen'." He corrected.

"Smokey!"

At this Jeffire laughed, causing Valerie to feel confused. What was so funny? Did she miss something?

"'Smokey'! Now isn't that something!" Jeffire said.

"Aw, c'mon, Jetfire! It's not that funny!" Smokey complained.

"It actually is. Don't give the kid a hard time. She's only 4 years old so she can't exactly pronounce our names correctly yet. Just let her call you that for now."

"I see. So how come she's here?"

"Valerie's parents had to leave her here for a few weeks while they're both away for one of their peace meetings."

At this Smokescreen's red optics widened in surprise.

"'Peace meetings'? She's peace ambassador members Mr. and Mrs. Smith's daughter? Then that makes her your-"

Jetfire gave his friend a look, telling him not to mention the fact that Valerie was his sparkmate in front of her. He didn't want her to know about that yet and he still needed her to trust him. Smokescreen got the message and stopped himself.

"Anyways, I was thinking that having Valerie meet you would help her to open up a bit." Jetfire said as he started walking beside Smokescreen down the hallway.

"Why? Something wrong?" He asked.

"Well, not exactly. We're just having a little issue on trust, that's all." Jeffire glanced down at Valerie and she could see the warm look in his gold eyes. "Isn't that right, Valerie?"

Valerie was a little confused by what Jeffire was asking her and nodded her head at first, but then she understood his question and shook her head. Both he and Smokey laughed wholeheartedly at this.

"Looks like someone's unsure of how they feel." Smokey said jokingly.

"Don't worry. You just need a little time to adjust, that's all."

Suddenly they all heard the sound of footsteps running towards them from behind and both Jeffire and Smokey turned around to see a robot that was yellow, pink, and gray with an orange face and green eyes. On his back were what looked to be helicopter wings unlike the red face she had seen painting on both Jeffire and Smokey, this robot had a purple face that looked completely different, almost like a bird or something. There was something about this new robot that Valerie didn't like and she ended up hiding her face in Jeffire's neck.

"I finally found you, Autobot!" The new robot said.

"Oh, great…" Smokescreen muttered, causing Jetfire to look over at him.

"Okay, what's goin' on? I've obviously missed something important here." Jetfire said.

"Thing is that Cyclonus challenged me to a game of Requiem Catch and Fire. I tried to back out and avoid him all day, but he been hunting me down ever since."

"Of course I have! You just don't want to do it because you're just a coward." Cyclonus said.

"Hey! I'm not a coward and you know it!" Smokescreen retorted.

"Then prove it!"

Smokescreen growled quietly and Jetfire could feel Valerie start to tremble in his arms. He had to do something before she ended up being too scared to be around anyone.

"Hey, Smokescreen. How about you accept his challenge so that this whole issue can be put to rest." Jetfire suggested. "For good." He added as an afterthought.

Smokescreen sighed at this, knowing that Jetfire was right.

"Fine. You wouldn't mind coming along, would ya?"

"Well…I'm not sure if that'd be such a great idea." Jetfire glanced down at Valerie, seeing that she was still hiding her face from everyone. At least she had stopped trembling.

"I think Valerie will be fine, Jetfire. You two can watch from a safe distance and you wouldn't have to worry about anything happening."

Jetfire sighed at this.

"Okay, I'll come and watch." Jetfire looked down at the little girl he held. "Hey, Valerie. You want to go watch Smokey and Cyclonus play a game?"

Valerie lifted her head to look at Jetfire. A game? She knew what games were and she knew that they were fun. So whatever game Smokey and the new robot, Psychonus, were going to play would probably be fun to watch, right? She nodded her head slightly in answer before all four of them started heading outside. They ended up in a large size patio attached to the back of a building that overlooked the wide open area they were heading towards. Jeffire had placed Valerie on the grassy ground where she could sit and she was surprised to see three smaller size robots that, instead of talking, merely bleeped and beeped as their way of talking. She couldn't understand what they were saying, but she found them to be interesting to look at.

"Jeffire?" She asked quietly, causing the robot holding her to look down at her. "What are they?"

"Those are Mini-Cons, Valerie." Jeffire told her.

"Mini…Cons?"

"Yep. Their names are Sky Blast, Astroscope, and Payload. Together they combine into a weapon known as the Requiem Blaster."

What surprised her even more was when they suddenly shrunk down to the size of a mouse before transforming and combining together to make some sort of gun. Was that the Reqim Blaser Jeffire was telling her about?

From where Valerie and Jeffire stood (which was a good distance away) Smokey was positioned with a target placed over his head and the Reqim Blaser in his hand while Psychonus stood a ways away from the orange robot with his back facing him. Smokey threw the Reqim Blaser as Psychonus before he (to her surprise) transformed into an orange vehicle with a crane. Psychonus quickly turned around to catch the gun that had been thrown at him before suddenly firing it at Smokey. Valerie had expected the blast of bright light that shot out of the gun to hit the target that had been placed over Smokey's head, but nothing prepared her for what her widening sky blue eyes saw next. Smokey had been hit straight on by the blast and all she could hear what the orange robot's voice yelling out in pain while Psychonus laughed, but it wasn't the kind of laugh that one made from hearing a funny joke; this laughter was one that sounded cruel and uncontrollable, almost insane or crazy.

"SMOKEY!" Valerie cried out.

"Yes, YES!" Cyclonus laughed maniacally. "This finally proves that you ARE a coward, Autobot! All Autobot's are cowards! And there's no room in this universe for cowards!"

Cyclonus started firing at some of the trees in the area, all the while laughing insanely from the result from his destructive behavior. Jetfire ran out to try and stop Cyclonus from causing anymore damage to the estate and surrounding area, all while activating his comm link to call for help.

"Jetfire to Optimus! I'm in need of assistance ASAP!"

"_**What's going on, Jetfire?**_" Optimus asked from the other end.

"Smokescreen is seriously injured after Cyclonus shot him in a game of Requiem Catch and Fire and now that psycho is enjoying his new game of destroy everything in sight!"

Jetfire turned off his comm link before charging at Cyclonus. But he wasn't even a close to the Decepticon when he suddenly fired in the direction he had come from, where Valerie was!

Valerie was frozen in place due to fear as everything seemed to suddenly go slowly. She watched at the blast started to get closer to closer to her. Her mind was screaming for her to get out of the way, to run to safety, but her body wouldn't listen. All she could do was hold Mr. Fwobbles tightly in her arms as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Suddenly someone snatched her away from where she had been standing a few seconds ago as they got her out of the way of the blast, holding her protectively in their arms as they both ended up rolling on the ground. As soon as they came to a stop Valerie was trembling and she slowly opened her eyes before looking up, only to have her eyes widened when she found Jeffire gazing down at her in a mixture of worry, concern, and relief showing in his gold eyes.

"Are you okay, Valerie?" He asked her quietly.

Valerie didn't say anything at all, not even nodding her head or anything. She just stared up at the robot holding her close to himself. Jeffire had protected her; he had saved her.

"CYCLONUS!" A deep new voice yelled in anger, causing Valerie to look up to see a horned robot with red eyes and a scowl running up to Psychonus and punching him in the face. Another robot that was red and blue with gold eyes followed him just as the horned robot dragged Psychonus off the ground forcefully. "What do you think you doing, you ignorant fool? Watch where you're aiming! I don't know what's worse, Demolisher's stupidity or your aim!"

"M-Megatron!" Psychonus said fearfully completely shocked by what the horned robot.

Jetfire, still protectively holding Valerie close to him, got up off the ground as he made his way over to where Optimus, Megatron, and Cyclonus were. Suddenly Megatron gestured to him, or better yet the little girl he held in his arms.

"Do you even know who this little girl is? This is peace ambassador member Mr. and Mrs. Smith's daughter! Do you even realize what you could've done? You would've cost us our only chance to establish peace between Cybertron and Earth!"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Cyclonus said sarcastically. "I didn't know that that rug rat was _so _important to all of us."

"SILENCE! You will not talk to me like that, do you hear me? So unless you want an even worse punishment than the one I plan on giving you, you will apologize to this sparkling!"

"You're kidding me! I have to apologize to this brat?"

"Cyclonus!" Megatron said warningly.

"Fine!" Cyclonus turned to both Jetfire and Valerie with a scowl on his face. "I'm sorry for shooting at you little girl." He said, not seeming to sound so sincere about it. "I'll _never _do it again."

Jetfire could feel Valerie tremble in his arms before hiding her face from everyone. Megatron turned to Optimus, giving him a serious look.

"My apologizes as well, Optimus Prime, for your soldier. See to it that he gets the care that he needs." Megatron said.

"Thank you for your help, Megatron." Optimus said.

"No need. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an insubordinate soldier to deal with."

With that Megatron started dragging Cyclonus back inside the estate before Optimus turned to face Jetfire.

"How is she, Jetfire?" Optimus asked.

"She'll be okay…hopefully." Jetfire answered. "She's very shaken up right now."

"She shouldn't have seen something like this happen yet at such a young age. I fear how this might affect her."

Suddenly Jetfire heard Valerie start to cry as she continued to bury her face against his chest. He felt his spark fill with sadness at the fact that she was crying and that she was so terrified.

"I'll get Smokescreen to Red Alert while you take care of her."

With that Optimus left with the fatally injured Smokescreen. Even the three Mini-Cons that made up the Requiem Blaster had left as well. Jetfire gazed down at Valerie as she continued to cry, his optics softening as he saw how small she seemed right now.

Valerie continued to cry as Jeffire held her close, occasionally rubbing her back soothingly. She was so scared. Smokey had gotten hurt and she had almost died if it hadn't been for Jeffire saving her. He saved her from getting killed and because of that she found herself trusting him completely now. No longer did she view him as a complete stranger, for now he was her friend, her best friend. One that had risked his life to keep her safe.

"I was scared!" She cried. "I was so scared!"

"Shh… It's okay, Valerie." Jeffire whispered, trying to comfort her. "I'm here now, you have nothing to be scared of. I'll keep you safe."

Jetfire tried to think of something that could probably calm Valerie down. That was when he thought of the Cybertronian Lullaby that his mother had always sang to him when he was still a sparkling whenever he was upset or before he went into recharge at night. Maybe it would work for Valerie as well. He sighed quietly before opening his mouth behind his face mask.

_**Beyond the sunBeyond the moonThere are the starsIn the night sky**_

_**Beyond the skiesAmong the starsIn quiet waitHome Cybertron**_

_**Rest in peaceIn my embraceAnd listen to this lullaby**_

Valerie was surprised when she suddenly heard Jeffire singing to her. His voice sounded slightly rough, but at the same time it was strangely soothing to her ears. She found herself slowly start to calm down until she was only sniffling. She looked up at him with her sky blue eyes being red and puffy from all her crying, and even if she couldn't seem Jeffire's face she could see that he was smiling down at her through his gold eyes, something she found herself starting to like about him.

"Don't…leave me." Valerie found herself saying.

"I'm not leaving you, Valerie." He told her. "Not anytime soon."

Valerie shook her head, knowing that he didn't understand what she was trying to tell him.

"No, don't _leave _me. Not like Smokey."

Jetfire's optics widened as he realized what Valerie meant before smiling behind his face mask.

"So now you trust me, eh? Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere. I still got things I need to do before that even happens. But Smokey's gonna be fine. Just give him some time and he'll be good as new."

"No reckless?" Valerie asked.

"No reckless." Jetfire answered, knowing that she didn't want him to do anything stupid that would end up with him getting hurt. "I think it's time we went back inside, kiddo. Are you okay with that?"

Valerie nodded her head. As Jetfire started making his way to the building he noticed that she was looking up at the sky again and he stopped momentarily. He watched her carefully, observing how fascinated she seemed to be the open blue space filled with white fluffy clouds…and did one of them look like a rabbit? Looking at her face Jetfire saw that she seemed to be at peace and he could even feel her small body relaxing slightly after what had occurred not so long ago.

"Whatcha looking at?" He asked.

"The sky." She said, never taking her eyes away from it. "Why is it blue?"

Jetfire couldn't help but smile at the innocent question. From what he had learned while on Earth, it was common for sparklings to ask such questions, but when it came to someone older have to provide answers they usually ended up trying to explain it in a way that the young mind of a sparkling would comprehend the information until they were old enough to understand. Luckily he had an explanation prepared.

"Because Primus made it so that it'd match your pretty blue eyes."

Valerie looked at him looking surprised before she had a confused look.

"Who Primis?"

"He's the god that created us transformers, or what you've probably been considering robots here this whole time."

"You're not robots?"

"Nope. Technically we're called Cybertronians, but we're also called transformers because of our ability to transform into other things, like how Smokey transformed that vehicle awhile ago."

"Can you transform as well?"

Jetfire chuckled.

"Course I can. Let me show you."

Jeffire placed Valerie down on the ground and backed up a few paces. She watched, holding Mr. Fwobbles as she wondered what would happen next.

"Transform!" He yelled.

Valerie's eyes widened in surprise when Jeffire's body started twisting, turning and folding into itself until a rocket ship that was a little over half the size of her robot friend stood in his place. She wasn't sure what to do, but she soon found herself going over to the rocket ship. She placed her tiny hand on the area near the front windows, surprised at how warm the smooth metal was as she ran it along the side while making her way towards the wings.

Jetfire couldn't help but shudder uncontrollably when he felt Valerie run her tiny hand along his wing. It just felt so good, but it took all his effort to keep quiet. She pulled her hand away from his wing with a worried look on her face. Valerie didn't know what was going on and he planned on keeping it that way for now.

"Jeffire? You okay?" Valerie asked.

"I'm fine. Just a little cold, that's all." He told her, hoping that she would buy his excuse for why he had been shuddering. He decided to change the subject by asking her a question. "So what do you think of my form?"

"It's different." Her eyes lit up as she seemed to realize something. "Can you fly?"

"Yeah, I can! What point would there be in having this form if I _can't_ fly?"

To prove his point Jetfire started to slowly fly around and was careful as he circled around Valerie. The little girl giggled as she watched, causing him to smile inwardly for making her happy. After awhile he stopped flying around before transforming back into his normal form, but he hadn't expected Valerie to run up to him and wrap her tiny arms around his leg in a hug. The funny thing was that she only came halfway up his thigh height-wise. He chuckled before bending down and giving the 4 year old a hug as well.

"Does it hurt when you transform?" Valerie asked.

"No, it doesn't hurt at all. It's very natural for transformers to constantly change like that." Jetfire told her.

"Can you take me flying?"

Jetfire chuckled as he grinned behind his face mask.

"I'll take you flying someday, okay? But I'd have to take you flying in this form since my other one is too small. Okay, let's get you back inside. I have a feeling you're probably hungry."

Jetfire scooped Valerie up into his arms before carrying her inside. After having gotten her something to eat (thankfully there were some humans around to help him make a simple ham and cheese sandwich) he took her by the med bay where they were going to see how Smokescreen was doing. Although what they saw surprised them both.

Valerie was surprised when she saw what looked to be Smokey, but instead of being orange he was white and his face blue.

"Smokey!" Valerie said, happy that he was okay. "You okay!"

Jetfire and Smokey laughed at this. Apparently the little girl didn't know that fixing up or repairing transformers was a lot easier than having to tend to a severely injured human.

"Hey, kiddo! As you can see I'm as good as new! But I also have a new name as well. From now on my name'll be Hoist."

"Hoist? How come you want that name?" Jeffire asked.

"What? New frame, new name. What else?" Hoist replied.

"Hose!" Valerie said cheerfully.

Jeffire ended up laughing because of this, much to Hoist's expense. Even with a new name she still couldn't pronounce it.

"Looks like Valerie comes up with the most creative ways to say everyone's name." Jeffire chuckled.

Later that day Jetfire was sitting down on a couch with Valerie curled up in his arms as she slept. He smiled behind his face mask. To think that only hours ago she had been upset about her parents leaving her behind and didn't want to be around him. And now here she was sleeping in his arms looking so peaceful. His spark swelled with joy and love for the little 4 year old, knowing that he held his future sparkmate in his arms. Jetfire knew that as long as he could keep her smiling then that was all he needed to be happy himself. He knew that this year and all the years to come would be the best ones in his life.

* * *

><p>ATE: When I was writing from Valerie's POV I was very tempted to correct every word I misspelled on purpose. It's that hard to do at times. The events in this first chapter actually tie in with <em>Swan's Love<em> as to how/why Smokescreen-excuse me, Hoist is so scared of Requiem Catch and Fire. And you could probably tell that there were some references to TDATS and Astera. One thing I actually like about writing this was that Astera is alive in this story (and in _Swan's Love_) and that writing her character is something I enjoy. It's almost like this is a AU of TDATS since she's alive, but I could be wrong.

Please remember to review! ;D


	2. Over The Years

ATE: I know it's been awhile since I last updated this story, but it was worth it since I ended up packing so much stuff into this chapter. Big thanks go out to **Crystalmaiden62**, **SilverStarlightXD**, and **Sailor Shinzo **for their reviews. And another thanks goes to **Crystalmaiden62 **for helping me come up with ideas for this chapter. In this chapter I ended up doing a few time skips since I wanted to have this story be three chapters long, and I ended up covering Valerie's childhood in this chapter from the ages 4, 7, and 9. I'm personally glad that by the time Valerie hits 7 that she's pronouncing everybody's names right (and I don't have to purposefully misspell words without correcting them like crazy). At least it's done now and you can read it. Enjoy

Declaimer: I don't own Transformers, Transformers Armada, or Swan Princess. I only own my OCs Valerie, Astera, and a few others that end up making an appearance in this chapter.

Jeffire - Jetfire  
>Asera - Astera<br>Megiton - Megatron  
>Opimis - Optimus<br>Demolisor - Demolishor  
>Willjack - Wheeljack<br>Decepicon - Decepticon  
>Psychous - Cyclonus<br>Reqim Blaser - Requiem Blaster

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 2: Over the Years<span>

During the time that Valerie stayed with Jeffire and Asera she had slowly started to adjust to the idea of staying at the base (a word she had learned from the two transformers). She had met many new people, such as Opimis Prime (the leader of the Autobot faction that lived there), Megiton (the leader of the Decepicon faction), Red Alert (the medic that was part of the Autobots), Scavenger (an older transformer that was a trainer), Demolisor, Thrust, and Willjack. Valerie had been surprised when she learned that Jeffire was the Vice Commander of the Autobots (which she learned was a secondary leader that took over if the primary leader wasn't around when her friend explained it to her).

At one point Megiton had apologized to Valerie for Psychonus not giving her the best first impression of the Decepicon faction and (with Opimis and Jeffire's help) explained to the 4 year old of the war that had occurred between the two factions before they both made peace with each other when it was over. There were a few Decepicons (like Psychonus) that were still somewhat spiteful towards the Autobots, but otherwise they got along. At least they were able to help her understand a little more about the beings she would spend her time with.

Everyday Valerie would spend her time around Jeffire and Hose (and occasionally Asera as well if Jeffire had to do something important), but almost all her time was spent with Jeffire ever since he saved her during her first day. She absolutely loved being around her best friend and she felt a bit of an attachment to him. Jeffire allowed her to stay with him during her naptime and even at night when it was bedtime. Whenever she was with him she always felt so happy.

But then the day came for her mommy and daddy to take her home and she started crying. Valerie didn't want to leave Jeffire; she wanted to stay with him longer.

Jetfire felt the same way as well. He could understand that the 4 year old was upset about leaving and he honestly didn't want her to leave. The fact that the connection between them had been developing over such a short amount of time was proof. Valerie ran up to him and he knelt down in time for her to wrap her small arms around him as she continued to cry. In response he carefully wrapped his arms around her, all the while gently rubbing her back soothingly.

"I don't want to go!" She cried, the sound of her upset voice causing a slight pang in his spark. "I want to stay!"

"I know. I feel the same way." He said quietly. He wanted to cheer her up somehow and thought of an idea. "But this isn't goodbye. You'll be able to come back here and we'll…see each other again."

Valerie looked up at him with teary sky blue eyes that were red and puffy from crying.

"Promise?" She asked, seeming to be hopeful yet unsure.

"Promise." Jetfire smiled behind his face mask as his gold optics gazed down at her affectionately.

This seemed to do the trick since Valerie managed to calm down. She glanced down at Mr. Fwobbles and then looked back up to Jetfire before she suddenly held up the white stuffed bunny to him.

"I…want you to hold onto Mr. Fwobbles until I come back to stay here." She told him.

Jetfire's optics widened, taken by surprised as he realized that the 4 year old wanted him to keep Mr. Fwobbles with him.

"But Valerie. I can't take Mr. Fwobbles from you. He's your bunny." He told her. He couldn't just take the little girl's most prized possession when it meant so much to her.

"I know. He's my favorite bunny, but I trust you to take care of him for me. Mr. Fwobbles understands."

Jetfire's gaze softened at this. He knew that Valerie trusted him, but he didn't think that she'd trust him to the point that she'd let him hold onto Mr. Fwobbles. She always held onto it during the few weeks that she stayed here and now here she was offering the stuffed bunny to him. Had the connection between them really develop that much in such a short time? He watched as a smile appeared on Valerie's face when he carefully took Mr. Fwobbles from her and he couldn't help the smile that appeared behind his face mask.

"Thanks. I'll be sure to take good care of him while you're away." Jetfire wrapped his arms around Valerie for one final hug, which she returned gratefully. "See you soon, kiddo."

Astera, Thomas, and Sarah had watched the exchange between Valerie and Jetfire with knowing looks on their faces. Both parents of the 4 year old were surprised at how much things had changed in the few weeks that their daughter had stayed with the two transformers. They remembered how upset she had been when they first brought her here to stay before having to leave, but now she had grown attached to the one that would be her future sparkmate when she was older. As much as they didn't want to separate her from Jetfire they had to.

Jeffire scooped Valerie up into his arms before take her over to where mommy and daddy were and handed her over to them. Mommy smiled at her best friend before opening the car door and buckling the 4 year old in her car seat. Valerie gazed out the window at Jeffire before the car started moving away from the base. She felt sad that she had to leave her best friend, but he told her that they would see each other again. He promised, and during the few weeks that she had stayed with him she knew that whenever he made a promise to her he did everything he could to keep it.

Jetfire watched as the car Valerie was in drove away from the base and when he could no longer see it he gazed down at the stuff bunny he held in his servo. Despite having just left he already missed the 4 year old. She had been the sweetest thing once she finally started trusting him and it had been hard for him to leave her when he had to take care of something important, but she was always happy whenever he came back.

"Why couldn't she just stay with us?" Jetfire asked.

He felt his mother place a servo on his shoulder.

"Jetfire. I know that you wanted to her to stay longer, but she needs to spend some time with her family as well. The connection between the two of you developed faster than we thought it would." Astera told him.

"I know. My spark already feels the affects of it. It's hard enough that I have to see her leave, but at least I know she'll be happy when she comes back." Jetfire turned to look at his mother. "Do you know when she'll come back?"

"No, I don't. But hopefully I'll be able to arrange Valerie to stay longer next time."

Jetfire was surprised by this, but then he hugged Astera in his happiness.

"Thank you. That would mean a lot to me."

A few days past and to Jetfire's delight he had learned that Valerie would be coming back to stay at the base two weeks from now and she would be staying for a whole month! His spark swelled in happiness from this news since he would be seeing the young 4 year old again.

He removed his face mask since he was in the comfort and privacy of his own quarters before gently picking up the white stuffed bunny that belonged to his future sparkmate. Jetfire deactivated his optics as he pictured Valerie smiling at him with her sky blue eyes lit up in happiness, causing him to smile. Years from now she would grow up to become a beautiful femme. His sparkmate that he was already growing to love and care for.

He was already looking forward to her coming back.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Valerie couldn't help the excitement she felt when the car pulled into the base, along with spotting Jeffire and Asera coming out of the building. As soon as mommy pulled her out of the car and placed her on the ground the 4 year old ran over to Jeffire and hugged his leg.

"Jeffire!" She said as she wrapped her arms around his leg to hug him.

Jetfire couldn't help but chuckle at this, all the while smiling behind his face mask.

"Hey there, kiddo!" He greeted.

"I missed you."

"Me too." Jetfire knelt down so he could be eye leveled with Valerie. "And it turns out that I'm not to only one who missed you."

Jetfire pulled out Mr. Fwobbles and he watched as Valerie's eyes widened in surprise when she saw the white stuffed bunny.

"Mr. Fwobbles!" She said excitedly before taking the toy from him and hugging it. She then looked up at him with a bright smile on her face. "I knew I could trust you to take care of him."

"Well at least you didn't doubt my abilities." He laughed before scooping the little girl up into his arms. "You excited?"

Valerie nodded her head eagerly. Jetfire smiled at this before making his way inside.

Astera, Thomas, and Sarah had watched what happened and smiled at the display.

"It's good to see that she loves spending time with Jetfire." Thomas said.

"He was all she ever talked about when she was back home." Sarah added.

"It's a good thing the other peace ambassadors agreed to this. Not only will their marriage result in the peace between Earth and Cybertron, but in their happiness as well." Astera stated.

Jeffire held Valerie as he carried her down the hallway of the base, all the while the little girl hugging Mr. Fwobbles to herself. She didn't know where he was taking her so she decided to ask.

"Where we going?" She asked, causing Jeffire to look at her.

"I was thinking of introducing you to my Mini-Con partner." He answered. "You remember the Mini-Cons, right?"

At this Valerie nodded. She remembered the first time she saw the three Mini-Cons that made up the Reqim Blaser, her first day at the base. Looking back on that day she couldn't believe that such tiny beings had that much power when they combined together. Before she knew it Jeffire was walking through an open door into a room that had so many Mini-Cons that Valerie couldn't possibly count them all if she could. All of the Mini-Cons were conversing with each other in a series of bleeps and beeps that just hearing them made the 4 year old giggle.

Jetfire saw this and he could help but smile behind his face mask. He placed her on the floor before he went further into the room to search for his Mini-Con partner. It didn't take him long to find him at all.

"There you are." Jetfire say, gaining the Mini-Con's attention. "I have someone I'd like you to meet. She might be a little shy, but I have a feeling she'll like you." At this the Mini-Con tilted his head to the side before giving off an inquisitive sounding bleep. "Wha? Of course she's nice! She's only a sparkling after all!"

Valerie saw Jeffire coming back with a Mini-Con following behind him. She hugged Mr. Fwobbles close to her, feeling a little nervous about meeting the Mini-Con. While she had only seen the three Mini-Cons together on her first day from a distance, this would be her first time being close to one. The Mini-Con was taller than her by a foot or two, but at least Jetfire was taller than they were, although the same could be said for all the other Mini-Cons in the room.

"We're back." Jetfire told her before kneeling down a bit so that he was leveled with her. "This happens to be Comettor, my Mini-Con partner. He's been with me during the war between the Autobots and Decepticons and even went with me during my missions." He noticed how Valerie hid her face slightly behind Mr. Fwobbles while she was peeking at Comettor. So she was shy. "It's okay, Valerie. Comettor's not gonna hurt you at all. You know that all the friends I've introduced you to haven't done anything to hurt you."

"But Psychonus…" Valerie started.

"Cyclonus is another story. I never intended for you to meet him like that in the first place. As I already told you, Comettor won't hurt you. Promise!"

Valerie looked up at Jeffire. He promised that Comettor wouldn't hurt her, so it had to be true, right? The 4 year old lowered Mr. Fwobbles so that he wasn't blocking her face before going up to the Mini-Con before her. Due to her height Comettor had to look down at Valerie before bleeping something to her.

"Hi…I'm Valerie." She told the Mini-Con. Comettor seemed to bleep excitedly, but she couldn't understand what he was saying. Valerie turned to Jetfire, who was now kneeling beside her to her right. "What he saying?"

"He's just saying that it's nice to meet you." Jetfire told her.

"How do you know what he saying?"

"Over the years he's been my partner, I started picking up on what Comettor says. When I first got him I couldn't understand a single bleep he talked about. I can understand your confusion, but maybe you'll start understanding the Mini-Cons as you get older and spend time with them."

Later that day Jetfire decided to surprise Valerie by taking her outside. He glanced down at the 4 year old he held in his arms to see that she was still covering her eyes like he told her to.

"Remember, no peeking." He told her.

He smiled behind his face mask when he heard her giggle.

"Okay." She said.

Jetfire turned his gaze up to the sky. It was a nice day out and the sky above was clear and blue. The perfect ideal weather for what he was about to do. Jetfire tightened his hold around the little girl slightly before activating the thrusters that were located underneath his feet and started ascending skyward slowly. He looked at Valerie's face and could see that some strands of her hair ash blonde hair were being blown around and getting in her face, but she still kept her eyes closed. Good. He continued going higher, but he decided to stop once he was a good few feet above the highest point of the base (he didn't want to go too high and scare Valerie). Jetfire smiled behind his face mask as he looked down at Valerie.

"You can look now." He told the little girl.

Valerie opened her eyes, only to have them widen in surprise at the sight she saw around her! They were in the sky! Below she could see the base, along with the courtyard and the small forms of some people that happened to be outside at the time. And the sky! Gazing at it Valerie could see that it seemed to stretch on forever, going beyond the horizon. She turned to face Jeffire and smiled.

"The sky!" She said excitedly. "We're in the sky!"

"That's right." Jeffire nodded his head. "We're in the sky."

Valerie giggled as Jeffire flew around a bit, but always remained at the same level the whole time. She enjoyed the sensation she felt from the whole experience and she never felt anything like it before in her entire life. What made it even more memorable was that her best friend was the one doing this for her.

Jetfire felt his spark swelled in joy when he saw how happy Valerie was. It was obvious that the 4 year old enjoyed flying around with him. He was taken by surprise when she suddenly wrapped her tiny arms around his neck in a hug, but he ended up chuckling as he continued holding her close.

"Thank you." He heard her say to him.

"No problem at all, kiddo!" Jetfire said. "I knew this would be something you'd like since I've always seen you gazing up at the sky whenever you got the chance. I think even Mr. Fwobbles likes it up here as well."

"He does. Mr. Fwobbles says thank you."

Jetfire smiled because of this. Being able to hold such an affectionate sparkling like Valerie seemed to be like a gift from Primus himself. He could only imagine how the rest of the years would be like as he watched the 4 year old grow.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

_(3 Years Later)_

To say that Valerie felt nervous was an understatement. She was extremely nervous at the moment as she sat in the back of the car. She gazed at the duffle back in the seat next to her. For the past few months she hadn't seen Jetfire, let alone been to the base at all. The reason why was in the duffle bag beside her. She had started taking ballet lessons for her own personal reason, but what had her so nervous were her thoughts. What would Jetfire think if he knew about her taking ballet lessons? Would he encourage it or tease her about it?

No. Over the three years that she had known Jetfire she knew for a fact that he would never do anything to make her upset deliberately. He was always so nice to her and even taught her a few things. He had been her best friend since day one at the base and he did things with her. Some of the things she enjoyed doing with Jetfire were gazing up at the sky and flying. She could still remember the first time he took her flying when she was still 4 years old.

Valerie felt her face heat up as she thought of Jetfire. Lately she had been thinking about him a lot and whenever she did she always felt weird, but in a good way. It was the same way whenever she was around him, along with feeling happy as well. She didn't know why she felt this way and she wasn't sure if she should tell Jetfire about it. It left her feeling confused.

Valerie saw that the car was pulling into the front of the base and the nervousness she felt seemed to return full force when she saw both Jetfire and Astera waiting near the entrance. She clutch the duffle bag close to her chest since Mr. Fwobbles was inside the bag at the moment. Once the car stopped Valerie unbuckled her seat belt before getting out of the car herself, along with both of her parents.

What she had noticed lately with her parents was that they have been getting more busier with their job as peace ambassadors. She knew their job was important and all, but because of it she had started seeing them less and less. Because of this mom and dad told her that she would end up spending more time with Jetfire at the base, and when the time came that she would need a ride home her parents would assign two people to escort her in their car.

"Hey, kiddo. I haven't seen you in the last few months. What've you been up to lately?" Jetfire asked.

"N-nothing. I've been practicing." Valerie answered.

"Practicing? What for?"

Valerie hadn't thought of an excuse earlier that she could tell her best friend, but then she managed to come up with one.

"It's a secret."

"A secret, eh?" Jetfire chuckled. "You do realize that I'll end up figuring it out, right?"

At this Valerie felt her face get warm before she started walking inside the base.

Jetfire was confused as he watched Valerie walk inside the base. Had she been…blushing? And she seemed to be nervous. What had happened the last few months, or better yet, what was she hiding from him?

'_It's not like I'm gonna find out standing here._' Jetfire thought.

With that Jetfire decided to go after Valerie. Apparently she hadn't gone far since he found her in a nearby room that was vacant, but what he found surprised him. Valerie was wearing different shoes-or better yet ballet slippers- and was carefully doing ballet exercises as a warm up. So far the 7 year old hadn't noticed he was there watching her.

"So this was your little secret." Jetfire said, causing Valerie to jump in surprise before she whipped her head to look at him. He smirked behind his face mask. "I told you I'd figure it out, remember?"

At this he saw Valerie's face turn red in embarrassment and she averted her sky blue gaze. Why had she been hiding this from him? She should be proud that she was learning ballet. Something was apparently wrong.

"What's wrong, Valerie?" He asked, going over to kneel down in front of her. "Was there a reason why you didn't want to tell me you were taking ballet?"

At this Valerie nodded.

"I was worried about what you might think." She told him.

Jetfire chuckled whole-heartedly.

"You were worried about what _I'd_ think?" At this Jetfire placed a hand on her shoulder, which caused the young girl to look up at him. "You wanna know what I think? I think that it's great that you're learning ballet and you should continue it if you really like it that much."

"You're…okay with it?"

"Of course I am! I'm your friend, and friends encourage each other. You didn't even have to hide this from me." He smiled behind his face mask. "So what inspired you to take ballet in the first place?"

At this Valerie smiled.

"You taking me flying 3 years ago, along with all the other times." She answered.

"Flying? Well, looks like you got a good source of inspiration, Skydancer."

Jetfire watched as a confused expression appeared on Valerie's face.

"Skydancer?"

"Yeah. My new nickname for you. You like gazing at the _sky_ and you're taking ballet, which is a type of _dance_, hence Skydancer. I personally think it suits you."

Valerie's face turned red and she averted her gaze, but she was still smiling. Jetfire couldn't help but think it looked cute.

"T-thanks…" She said quietly.

Jetfire ended up watching Valerie practice her ballet. At first she had been nervous about the idea, only to be reminded that he was happy that this was something she wanted to do. Then there was the nickname he gave her. Skydancer. It was pretty, but at the same time it sounded like a name a transformer would have. Just the thought of being called Skydancer made her feel like she were one of the transformers on base; whenever Jetfire called her that Valerie would get that weird feeling she had earlier. She didn't understand why she felt this way?

It was when Valerie was done practicing that she suddenly heard clapping. At first she thought it was Jetfire, but when she looked over at him she saw that he wasn't the one doing it.

'_Then who?_' She thought.

Valerie realized that the clapping was coming from the doorway and turned towards that direction, only to have her eyes widen in surprise. Standing near the doorway were two kids that appeared to be around her age and they were the ones that were clapping; one of them was a boy and the other a girl. The boy had slightly spiked blonde hair with blue eyes and wore a blue T-shirt and tan shorts. The girl had short brown hair with green eyes and wore a red shirt and white shorts.

Valerie had never seen the boy and girl around the base before and because of this she suddenly felt very nervous and uncomfortable. It just so happened that she was standing next to Jetfire and she took that chance to hide behind him.

Jetfire didn't miss the way Valerie was acting around the two kids and knew that she was shy. She had been so used to seeing the same faces during her stay at the base that she hadn't expected to see them at all. The only reason she hadn't seen them around was because their parents had been bringing their kids with them to the base for the past few weeks during Valerie's absence. Jetfire had talked to them occasionally during that time and he figured that if the 7 year old girl hiding behind him saw that he knew them she would start to feel more comfortable around him. Besides, this would give her the chance to be around human kids that were her age since she spent almost all of her time being around him.

'_This is something she needs to do._' Jetfire thought. '_She can't always be around Cybertronians for the majority of her life and childhood._'

"Hey, what have you both been up to?" Jetfire asked.

"Nothing much, Jetfire." The boy replied. "We were curious about what was going on in this room."

"Who's hiding behind you?" The girl asked, her green eyes showing her curiosity.

"This would be Valerie." Jetfire turned to look at Valerie. "C'mon kiddo. Go introduce yourself to them."

Valerie just shook her head. Jetfire could tell that she was being shy. He sighed before kneeling down in front of her.

"What's wrong, Valerie?" He asked.

"…I don't know them." Valerie answered, her voice quiet.

"Well, you're not going to know them if you just continue to hide behind me, you know? This is no different than the time I first introduced you to Hoist." Valerie looked at the two kids uneasily before looking back at him. Okay, little change in plans. "Valerie, you need to have human friends that are around the same age as you. You can't just spend all your time with me or any of the other transformers on base. I can't always spend my time with you."

Valerie couldn't help feeling confused. Was…Jetfire angry with her? He didn't sound like he was angry. Or maybe he was good at hiding his anger from her; similar to how Red Alert had been angry when Jetfire had to go into the med bay due to an accident (that could have easily been avoided, according to the medic bot) while he had been training, but hadn't showed it. She thought he liked spending time with her. Or had she been taking his time away from his duties?

'_Maybe he is angry, but isn't showing it._' Valerie thought sadly before hesitantly going up to the boy and girl she didn't know.

"H-hi. I-I'm Valerie." She told them, looking at her feet as she did.

Suddenly she saw a hand being held out to her and she looked up to see that it was the girl.

"Nice to meet you, Valerie." The girl said. "I'm Alexis, and this is Rad."

"It was neat getting to see you dance." The boy (who Valerie learned was Rad) said.

"R-really?"

"Yeah!"

Valerie was starting to feel a little comfortable around Alexis and Rad, but then one question that had been nagging her so far came to mind.

"How come both of you are here?" She asked.

At this Alexis and Rad smiled.

"Our parents happen to come work here everyday. They just happened to bring us along so that we could get an idea as to what it's like here at the base." Rad explained.

"So far we happen to find it so cool here." Alexis added. "So what are you here for?"

"Um…every now and then my parents have me stay here while they're away due to their jobs." Valerie explained. "Recently they've both been getting busier and busier and they end up being away from around a few weeks to a month or two."

Valerie was surprised by Alexis' and Rad's shocked expressions.

"And you end up staying here for _that _long? What kind of job do your parents have that makes them so busy?" Rad asked.

"My parents happen to be peace ambassadors members."

"Really? That probably explains why you're here then?" Alexis said.

A few minutes later of talking with Alexis and Rad had Valerie feeling comfortable around her new friends, but then they had to leave. That was when she remembered that Jetfire was still in the room and she turned around to see him leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. He had been very quiet that she forgot about him being there, but then she was reminded of what happened before she started talking to Alexis and Rad, which caused her to have a sinking feeling in her stomach. Jetfire must've realized that she was staring at him since he lifted his gold gaze to her and Valerie ended up feeling her face heat up slightly as she looked at her feet nervously.

"Y-you're not…mad at me, are you?" She asked quietly.

Jetfire was taken aback by this. He uncrossed his arms before going over and kneeling down in front of Valerie.

"I'm not mad at you, Valerie." Jetfire answered, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Why would you think that?"

Valerie looked up at Jetfire feeling a little confused. He wasn't angry at her?

"Because I thought you said you didn't like spending time with me and because I didn't want to make friends with Alexis and Rad."

"What? No, no, no, Valerie! I didn't say that! What I meant was that there may come times when I can't always spend time with you because of my duties. That's why I wanted you to be friends with Alexis and Rad. Because they could be able to fill in my role in my stead. Kinda like a substitute teacher. It'd probably only be temporary, but they would be fully capable of keeping you company while I'm away like mom has done for you."

"Really?"

"Really." Jetfire nodded his head. "You never know if there'll be another Requiem Catch and Fire incident like last time, and I want to make sure that you aren't around to get hurt if it ever happens. Not only are you my responsibility while you're here and you're parents aren't around, but you're very special to me…as a friend."

Jetfire was surprised when Valerie hugged him, but he still returned it. He was a little sad, though because she was growing up so fast, yet at the same time it was slow for him. He missed being able to carry her around when she was still 4 years old, but then he was looking forward to when she would grow up to be the beautiful femme that he knew she would become someday. It was hard not being able to tell her his true feelings for her and it was because of it that he had to be careful about what he said to and around her. Jetfire didn't want her to know until the time was right.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

_(2 Years Later)_

Ever since that day when she first met Alexis and Rad 2 years ago the three children had been good friend, but nothing could ever compare to her friendship with Jetfire. Now that she was 9 years old, there were many things she understood now than when she was younger. One of them being her feelings. When she was still 7 Valerie hadn't known what that weird feeling that she go when she was around Jetfire was, but now that she was older she knew what it really was. She had a crush on Jetfire.

Valerie didn't know why she had a crush on him; maybe it had been because of all the time she spend with his for over the past 5 years. She _really _did like him, but then there were a few problems that showed themselves to her as if they were being broadcast on a huge bright neon sign.

First of all he was a transformer, a robot. Second, there was the fact that he was 270,000 years old (even if he was 27 by human standards, he was still older than her). And the biggest problem was that he was her best friend! It just wouldn't work out between them.

'_Even though I have a crush on him, Jetfire probably doesn't feel the same way for me._' Valerie thought disappointedly. '_I'm just a kid and he's been my best friend since I was 4. And we're just so different from each other despite our similarities._' She hung her head, which caused her ash blonde hair to fall in front of her face. '_I don't want to ruin our friendship if I tell him and it turns out he doesn't like me that way._'

"What's got you looking so gloomy?"

My eyes widened in surprise and I looked up to find a boy that appeared to be a year older than me with black hair and green eyes. Even though this is the first time I've seen this boy, something about him made me feel very uneasy and I just…didn't like the way he was looking at me at the moment.

"W-who are you?" I asked, unable to stop myself from stuttering slightly.

"My name is Drake Ellison." He answered, giving me what he must've thought was some award-winning smile. "My dad happens to be one of the soldiers that works on this base, and I'm planning on following in his footsteps."

"Uh…that's great."

"And if I'm not mistaken, you're Valerie Smith, the daughter of peace ambassador members Mr. and Mrs. Smith, right?"

"H-how do you know?" Now I was really starting to feel uncomfortable.

"The fact that an ambassador's daughter has been stay here at the base isn't exactly common, you know? It's almost safe to say that you're a celebrity of sort."

Valerie didn't like where this was going and she just felt the urge to run away. She started wishing that Jetfire had been there to help her; if he had he wouldn't been able to get her out of this uncomfortable situation without any trouble.

'_Please help me, Jetfire._' Valerie suddenly thought. She didn't know why she thought that, and it was almost like she thought that something would happen if she did.

"What's going on here?"

Valerie looked behind to and was surprised to see Alexis, who happened to have her hands on her hips at the moment. The 9 year old girl couldn't help but feel relieved that someone she knew was here.

"Nothing. I was just talking to her, that's all." Drake replied.

"Oh _really_?" Alexis asked, her voice having a hint of accusation in it. "I just happened to be looking for her just now."

Alexis gave Valerie a look that she knew meant that her friend was trying to get her out of this situation. She didn't hesitant to go with the girl and Valerie felt grateful that Alexis was helping her.

Unbeknownst to the three kids Jetfire had witnessed the whole thing from where he was hiding from around the corner. That boy, Drake… the shuttle mech didn't trust him at all and it had been obvious that he had been making Valerie uncomfortable the whole time. Jetfire knew what he had to do, and he was going to confront the boy; so with that he approached the boy, who hadn't noticed him at all.

"And what was that about?" Jetfire asked.

Jetfire felt a little amused when he saw the boy jump in fright as he turned around to face the shuttle mech, but then that amusement faded as soon as he recovered.

"Oh, it's just one of you guys." Drake said. "I just happened to be talking to Valerie, that's all."

"Is that so?" Jetfire crossed his arms as he narrowed his gold optics at the boy, along with a frown forming behind his face mask. "Something tells me that there's more to it than what you're telling me."

"What makes you think that?" The boy was trying to feign ignorance.

"Don't play dumb with me. I know you're hiding something and as your superior I demand to know what you're hiding."

"And what makes you think I'm hiding something?"

"I've been alive longer than you have, kid. I can tell this things very easily."

At this Drake seemed to have a sort of devious smile.

"So you could tell, huh? We both know that Valerie's the ambassadors' daughter. I merely thought that if I were to date her, I could end up getting enough fame to earn a promotion by the time I join the army when I'm older."

At this Jetfire felt angry by the self-centered attitude of this boy and he tightened his hands into fists. How dare he even entertain the idea of using _his _future sparkmate for his own selfish gains!

"You disgust me." Jetfire said lowly with his anger showing in his voice. "I don't want you going anywhere _near _her, you here me? And if I catch you attempting to pull something off like this again, I'll be sure to inform your father about this. Do I make myself clear?"

Jetfire had watched as Drake's face seemed to pale while he had been talking. He felt satisfied when he saw the boy nod head before running off. When Jetfire saw he was gone he went to lean against a nearby wall and crossed his arms. He reflected back on what happened earlier when he was making his way down the hallway and how he had heard Valerie's thought of wanting him to help her. That was what caused him to rush to her before hiding around the corner to watch what would happen. He would've been the one to help her if Alexis hadn't come when she did (which was something he was grateful for).

Jetfire cycled his vents. Valerie was already showing signs that she was responding to the engagement connection and he had heard her earlier thoughts on her having a crush on him. He had been thrilled to find out about it, but then Valerie had started putting herself down by thinking that he didn't have feelings for her. Jetfire knew that he would do everything he could to protect his future sparkmate from harm and he would do anything for her.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

That night a party was held at the base and Valerie was surprised to learn that her parents would be there. Apparently the party was being held to celebrate the anniversary of the peace council or something like that. She had to admit that it confused her even as she stood in the big room filled with both humans and transformers and she couldn't help but feel small compared to all of them.

'_Then again Alexis and Rad probably feel the same way._' Valerie thought.

Due to the fact that her parents were members of the peace council Valerie's mother had her wear the frilly light pink dress that she now wore, along with a pair of flat dress shoes that went with it. She was okay with the fact that the dress was frilly, but it was the color… It wasn't that she didn't like the light pink color of the dress, it just wasn't her favorite color to wear. Mom seemed to have the idea in her head that just because she was a girl she was supposed to like pink. At least she only had to wear it for tonight.

But it didn't help that she felt extremely uncomfortable being at this party. There were too many people and so many of them she didn't know at all. There was even a woman with dark hair and scornful looking green eyes that stood with that boy she saw earlier (Drake Ellison, she remembered). Valerie assumed that the woman must've been Drake's mother since she would see the similarities in both their features. And she also seemed to be one of the members on the peace council, and just like her son she didn't like the vibe that the woman seemed to be giving off.

Jetfire glanced over to where Valerie was standing near a table not from where he and Astera were. Not only could he see how uncomfortable she was, but he could feel it through the engagement connection between them. He knew what he had to do. Astera seemed to sense that something was wrong.

"What's wrong, Jetfire?" Astera asked.

Jetfire turn to Astera.

"It's time." Jetfire whispered so no one would overhear. "She has a right to know."

Astera seemed to understand what Jetfire meant since she nodded.

"Go. I'll take care of any questions they might ask."

Jetfire couldn't help but smile behind his face mask and gave his mother a quick hug before making his way over to where Valerie was.

Valerie was surprised when she saw Jetfire approaching her, but then it was replaced by confusion when she saw the expression in his gold optics. He then held his hand out to her.

"Come with me." Jetfire said quietly.

Valerie was confused by this, but she still ended up placing her hand in Jetfire's before he started leading her out of the room and away from the party. Her face heated up slightly since she was holding Jetfire's hand. It didn't make sense for her to react like this and it wasn't like this was the first time she'd done this with him. So what made this time so different than all the others? That was when she noticed that they were heading outside and Jetfire released her hand before turning to face her.

"I need you to hold onto me so that I don't end up dropping you." He told her.

"Are you taking me flying?" Valerie asked.

"Something like that."

Valerie wasn't sure what to make of that, but she still did what Jetfire told her by wrapping her arms around him (or as best as she could). Her face got warmer as the shuttle mech wrapped his arms around her and they were soon leaving the ground. She could feel the cold night air as they flew, but luckily Jetfire was keeping her warm. Valerie didn't have a clue where he was taking her, but she knew that it must've been somewhere away from the base. She turned her head so that the side of her face was pressed against his chest and watched as the sky passed them. There were so many stars littering the night sky and she thought it looked beautiful.

Before she knew it Jetfire was landing on the ground and Valerie saw that he had taken her to what looked to be a meadow that had a clear view of the night sky. The place looked so peaceful and quiet, something she liked and preferred over the large noisy room she had been in not so long ago. It was then that she realized that Jetfire must've brought her out her because of that and turned to him.

"That's why we left the party." She said. "Right?"

"That's part of the reason." Jetfire said before sitting down in the grass. His gold optics looked up at her expectantly. "Let's just sit down and enjoy the view for now."

Valerie felt her stomach doing flips and sat down on the grass with Jetfire, but with some space between them. She was surprised when he started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"I don't see why you're sitting away from me. You act like this is the first time we've been alone like this. You've been around me long enough to know that I don't bite."

"Y-you want me to sit _next _to you?" Valerie could feel her face getting warmer as her stomach did flips.

"Of course I do! You'll end up getting cold if you don't."

Valerie could reason with that. Jetfire was just looking out for her like he always did. At least she thought he was. She hesitantly scooted closer to him and was taken by surprise when he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Despite feeling somewhat nervous she looked up at the sky with Jetfire.

"It's so beautiful. So many stars." Valerie said.

Not as beautiful as you, Jetfire wanted to say, but refrained from doing so. He was aware of how she had been feeling for the last few minutes they've been here. Jetfire knew he was going to have to tell her about the engagement connection soon.

"Maybe the sky knew you were coming and wanted to give you something nice to look at." Jetfire joked.

Valerie couldn't help but smile because of that. The first time Jetfire had taken her out to see the night sky was when they went outside the base to see it, and that was what he told her the first time. She was aware that the sky didn't work that way now that she was older, but back when she was 5 years old she had believed him.

"Sometimes I wish mom wouldn't always want me to wear pink. I don't really like wearing it and mom assumes that I should like it since I'm a girl."

At this Jetfire chuckled.

"Why are you complaining to me? I'm not the one in charge of your wardrobe. You should be complaining to your mom about it."

Valerie couldn't help but giggle. He did have a point.

"Skydancer." Jetfire suddenly said, causing Valerie to turn to him. He gazed down at her with those gold optics of his with an expression that she could discern. "I know how much you love gazing at the sky, and I brought you out her because I have something important to tell you."

Valerie could feel her face heating up and she looked away, her heart pounding in her chest and her stomach doing multiple flips. She couldn't help feeling nervous at the moment.

"I know what you're feeling right now and how nervous you are." He continued. "I also know that you have feelings for me."

Valerie was shocked by this and her face paled slightly as she looked at Jetfire. How did he know that she had a crush on him? She never told anyone about it, not even Alexis!

"H-how do you know about that?" She stuttered.

"There's a connection between the two of us, one that's been around before I was even born. Because of this connection I've been able to know what you're thinking and feel your emotions."

Valerie felt embarrassed now since Jetfire probably knew about her crush on him for the last 2 years. And worst of all he probably knew what she was feeling at this moment! Right now she felt like curling up just to make herself feel invisible. Or maybe should would go hide under the covers of the bed that was in the room she stayed in at the base as soon as she got back. That sounded like a good idea right now.

"P-Prove it." Valerie said.

"Are you sure you want to go there?" Jetfire asked.

Valerie nodded her head. She thought of the day when Jetfire saved her from getting killed during Cyclonus' rampage. And then she was reminded of when he sang to her after that incident as a way to comfort her. She was surprised that she remember it until now, then again it had been 5 years since it happened; she hadn't heard him sing it since that day and she could remember how much she had hoped to hear it again.

"I didn't think you would liked it that much." Jetfire suddenly said. "If I had I would've sang it more often when you were still 4. It probably would've helped getting you to go to sleep faster during naptime."

At this Valerie blushed and Jetfire couldn't help but smirk behind his face mask.

"What exactly is this connection we have?" Valerie asked.

"It's called an engagement connection. You humans are capable of marrying the one you want to be with for the rest of your lives, but for Cybertronians this isn't the case since we have sparkmates, who could be considered soul mates in a way. Before we're even born Primus chooses who each of us is sparkmates with in a fashion similar to the concept of arranged marriages. It's when two sparkmates meet for the first time that the engagement connection forms, but it starts out in a dormant state that grows over time as the two spend more time with each other." Jetfire sighed quietly as he felt Valerie's anxiousness. "Do you see where I'm going with this, Valerie? Do you finally understand what this means?"

"Y-you don't mean…" Valerie trailed off as she realized what Jetfire was telling her. She looked up at him and her eyes widened when she saw him nod. "We're sparkmates? But how long have you known about this?"

"Since the day I first saw and held you as a newborn sparkling. You're parents learned about us being sparkmates after mom explained it to them and it was because of that that the members peace group decided that since we were sparkmates, we would be able to unite both Cybertron and Earth in peace as a result of our marriage."

"But…why us?"

"Because we happen to be the first Cybertronian and human to be sparkmates with each other. It's never happened before until the day you were born. It's the reason why your parents always left you with us when they were busy, because the engagement connection between us had to develop as a result of how much time we've spent together. But none of us expected the engagement connection to develop as fast as it did during the first time you stayed with us at the base."

"So that means that someday we're supposed to get married to each other?" Valerie asked.

"Yes. But don't think that I'm only doing it because of some higher power or that I was told I had to." Suddenly Valerie found herself being held by Jetfire and she could hear her heart beating slow loudly in her ears. "I love you, Skydancer. I always have since you were born. I fell in love with you the moment I first held you all those years ago and I know you feel the same. I just haven't been able to tell you that until now."

Valerie was overwhelmed by the emotions she felt because of what Jetfire just told her. She felt happy, yet she felt a little scared at the same time.

"I…don't know what to say." She admitted.

"I know. I understand that you're confused right now, but you don't need to be. You don't need to be scared either since we'll be getting bonded to each other until you're a little older. In case you're wondering, getting bonded is the same as getting married, but the option of divorce is out of the question."

At least Valerie now understood what was going on. She hugged Jetfire back as best as she could, now starting to get used to the idea that she was his sparkmate. She was starting the feel a little tired and shut her eyes.

"Could you sing me that song? Please?" She asked quietly.

It was then that she felt something strange; she felt…happy, but it felt as if it wasn't her own happiness that she was feeling. Was it Jetfire's happiness that she felt? Before she could ask she heard Jetfire singing quietly to her and it served to lull Valerie to sleep.

By the time Jetfire stopped singing he knew that Valerie was already asleep and smiled behind his face mask.

"Sweet dreams, Skydancer." He whispered, something he had done for her when she was still 4 years old. "Looks like it's time for bed."

With that Jetfire carefully gathered Valerie into his arms before flying back to the base. Hopefully the party was over by now.

* * *

><p>ATE: That's the end of chapter 2. The next chapter will be the last one to this story, but don't worry yet! I still need to plan out what'll happen with <strong>Crystalmaiden62<strong>. I happened to draw a picture of a 4 year old Valerie from the first chapter while during the time I was typing the chapter up. Here's the link (without spaces):

http : / aerith -the- evenstar .deviantart. com/# /d4l uo 5j

Thank you for reading this chapter and please remember to review! ;D


	3. What The Future Holds

ATE: Lookie, lookie what I finally managed to get up! Thanks goes to **Crystalmaiden62**, **SilverStarlightXD**, and **Sailor Shinzo** for their reviews, and another big thanks to **Crystalmaiden62 **and **Sailor Shinzo** for the ideas they gave me for this chapter. I had wanted to get this chapter out before **Crystalmaiden62** posted chapter 3 of Swan's Love, but I ended up being delayed a bit, but that didn't stop me from being able to type this up and have her look over it so that we could make sure that we were able to apply it to Swan's Love. This happens to be the last chapter for this story since I wanted to stick to the three chapter idea that my friend had done for Swan's Love. I hope everyone enjoys the final chapter of Time In Between.

Declaimer: I don't own Transformers, or Transformers Armada. I only own my OCs Valerie, Astera, and Drake, while **Crystalmaiden62** owns her OC Alyss.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 3: What The Future Holds<span>

_(1 Year Later)_

Ever since that night Jetfire told her about being his sparkmate Valerie had been more than willing to spend more time with him. Despite knowing they would get married someday she would feel somewhat awkward around him when they were alone, yet she was still trying to get used to the intimacy he expressed. She had a feeling he was trying to get her used to being around him and one way he went about doing this was having them sleep together ("Like old times." He told her, reminding her of the countless times she slept with him when she was 4). Over time she grew more comfortable around him. But they decided to keep their relationship secret. Even when she went back home Valerie was able to communicate with Jetfire through the connection they had.

One day, though, Valerie had overheard Astera and Optimus talking about someone called 'Sideways,' but their tones were worried. At first she didn't understand why they felt that way, but they mentioned that he had tried to start a war between Earth and Cybertron, she saw why they were worried. This Sideways had tried to do this after she was born and if he had succeeded, she probably wouldn't have met Jetfire the way she did and instead her parents would've kept her away from any transformer they spotted. This was enough to have her fear Sideways.

Valerie decided that she heard enough and started to leave when her vision went dark from something covering her eyes suddenly, but it wasn't done in a playful fashion. She was about to scream for help when a hand clamped over her mouth roughly. That was when she was suddenly picked up as someone started carrying her. Valerie was feeling fearful and anxious and started struggling.

"Stop moving!" A familiar voice hissed at her.

Valerie was shocked! That was Drake's voice she just heard! But what was he doing to her? Where was he taking her? After awhile they stopped and Valerie heard a door opening before she was shoved inside a room, the cold air assaulting her skin and causing goosebumps to form as she started shivering. She wrapped her arms around her, but that was when she realized that her arms were free! Valerie's hands shot up to the knot behind her head and undid the blindfold to find that she was in a freezer! She slowly madder her way over to the door and tried to open it, but to her horror it was locked. She was locked inside a freezer! Not sure what else to do she started pounding on the cold door.

"Help! Someone let me out!" Valerie cried.

Valerie kept this up until her fists started to feel numb from the cold. She sat on the floor and curled up in order to stay warm.

'_Someone…please help me…_' She thought.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Jetfire was with Hoist training when he felt Valerie's distress, causing him to stop. Something was wrong.

'_Valerie? What's wrong?_' He asked her.

_**{Jetfire…}**_ He heard Valerie's voice say. _**{Help…me…}**_

At this his optics widened.

'_What happened?_'

_**{I was…minding my own business when someone grabbed me from behind. They locked me inside a freezer…}**_

'_Hang on! I'll get you out!_'

_**{Please…it's so cold…}**_

Jetfire ran out of the training room (with Hoist running after him while asking where he was going) and started making his way to the only place that had a freezer: the kitchen.

"Where are you going?"

Jetfire turned to where the voice came from, only to narrow his optics when he saw that boy, Drake Ellison. He could still remember how he tried to flirt with Valerie just to use her.

"None of your business." Jetfire told him.

Jetfire continued rushing, but he realized that an extra set of footsteps were following him and looked over his shoulder to see Drake following him.

"Get lost, kid!"

"Not until you tell me where you're going." Drake said.

Jetfire let out an exasperated sigh.

"I'm trying to get to Valerie before she freezes. Now scram!"

What annoyed Jetfire was when he saw the smirk on Drake's face in response to getting him to answer the boy's question.

"I'm coming as well." The boy declared.

"No!" Jetfire's response came out automatically. "_You'd _only get in _my _way!"

"I can help, you know?"

"I don't need help from a _kid_!"

Drake frowned at this.

"I'm _not _a kid!"

"You're right! You're a _sparkling_! And before you ask, a sparkling is basically a newborn transformer, so you'd be considered a sparkling!"

"Why you…!"

"Exactly! I don't need some temperamental _sparkling_ getting in my way! I have Hoist helping me!"

"If you hadn't noticed your friend left."

It was at this that Jetfire realized that Drake was right. Hoist wasn't around. Where did he go?

'_Better yet, how'd he get away without me noticing?_' Jetfire thought before turning back to the 11 year old boy that stood in front of him.

"Fine!" Jetfire said, sounding annoyed. "You can come, but the moment you get in my way I'm kicking you off!"

Funny how Jetfire wanted to literally kick the boy due to how much he didn't like him. Sadly he was an Autobot and it'd go against their code of not harming humans (despite how irritating some of them could be at times). For once he wished he were a Decepticon just so he could kick Drake.

'_I wonder if there's a way to sign up as a Decepticon temporarily?_' He mused. '_If not I could try to pull a prank on him or convince Hoist to help._'

Pranks didn't exactly go against the Autobot code, and he wouldn't get in too much trouble for doing so. Sure it would earn him a lecture from Optimus Prime and a scolding from his mother, but it'd be worth seeing the look on Drake's face as soon as he was pranked. As he made his way to the kitchen (with Drake following behind him) Jetfire searched through his processor for ideas for his prank. Having him trip over tripwire? Too risky since he didn't exactly know where the boy went…and he didn't want to accidentally get someone else like Scavenger, or worse Cyclonus; it just wouldn't end well. Placing a bucket of water on top of a door that'd fall on him? Again, too risky like the tripwire idea since it could backfire on him. How about—

That was when Jetfire realized that they were now outside the door leading into the kitchen and he wasted no time going inside and heading straight to the freezer. He found that the door had been locked from the outside and moved the bar barricading the door before flinging it open. Nothing prepared him for the sight that met his optics.

Valerie was huddled up on the floor with her arms wrapped around herself to provide what little warmth she could to her shivering form. He could see that her skin was slightly paler than it should've been and knew that she must've been locked inside this freezer longer than what was normal. Jetfire didn't hesitate to go inside and scoop her into his arms and brought her out of the freezer. As soon as he had gotten her out Valerie started shivering more from the change in temperature and the heat he was giving her as he held the 10 year old close to him. He hoped he would be able to get her warmed up if he kept holding her.

"Valerie!" He cried out.

"J-Jet…f-fire…?" She asked quietly through chattering teeth.

"I'm here, Skydancer." He was relieved that she was okay, but that still didn't get rid of the fact that she had been locked inside a _freezer_. "How long were you in there?"

"I…don't know… I can't feel my…toes…"

This caused Jetfire to feel worried. Valerie couldn't have been locked inside that freezer for _that_ long to get frostbite! Was it that she was just that cold that she thought she couldn't feel her toes?

"Who did this to you?" He whispered.

Valerie didn't say anything, but what she did do was gaze in the direction to his right. Jetfire followed her blue gaze and felt his anger build up when his gold optics landed on Drake, who had been quiet the whole time.

"You…!" Jetfire growled quietly, his optics narrowing in anger. "You did this!"

"Me?" Drake asked, trying to sound innocent. "I didn't do anything—"

"Don't play dumb, you pit-born glitch!" Now Jetfire was angry and he didn't hide it. "I might not be a lie detector, but I sure as slag _know_ when someone lies to me! And you are a horrible liar!"

The look in Drake's green eyes showed that he'd been caught, but then it changed to a devious look. It was like this boy knew he'd be caught, but had a back up plan made in advance. But there was no _way _the 11 year old boy could've come up with this on his own!

"So what if I was the one who did it? You don't _have _any proof."

"Funny how you say that seeing as I happen to have some proof with me."

Jetfire's optics widened in surprise when he saw Hoist walk into the kitchen with Optimus, Astera, and (to his greater surprise) Megatron and Cyclonus following him as well. And just as his friend had said, he had proof in the form of disc. The shuttle mech turned to look at Drake to see that his face had gone pale, possibly from the fact that Hoist had proof of what he did.

That was when a woman came storming into the kitchen with a livid look on her face and he recognized the woman as being one of the peace ambassadors on the peace council. He noticed the similarities between the woman and Drake and realized that this woman was in fact his mother, Alyss Ellison. Jetfire could remember seeing the woman at the anniversary party last year, but he hadn't realized who she was until now. Even before that party he had only heard about Mrs. Ellison, but none of the things he'd heard about her were good.

"What is the meaning of this?" Alyss demanded.

"Mrs. Ellison. I was just about to contact you, but it looks like you managed to come on time." Optimus told her.

"You're son locked Valerie inside a _freezer_!" Jetfire stated, trying to rein in his anger and keep it under control as he continued to hold his future sparkmate close to him.

At this Alyss narrowed her green eyes at him.

"And what _proof_ do you have of Drake doing so?"

"Hoist managed to find proof from one of the surveillance cameras in the monitor room. If you would, Hoist." Optimus gestured to a nearby console that was located in the kitchen.

Hoist did as he was told and went over to the console with the disc before inserting it into the disc drive. Just as he had said the screen showed Drake dragging Valerie (who had a blindfold tied around her eyes) down a hallway before going through a door before the camera switched to the one showing the inside of the kitchen where the 11 year old boy shoved her inside the freezer and locked her inside.

Jetfire looked over at Mrs. Ellison and (just like her son) saw that her face had gone pale, but the expression wasn't the kind that one got from finding out their child did something bad when they thought they'd never do something so horrible; the look was more like she'd been caught as well and that was when the shuttle mech put two and two together! The supposed backup plan Drake had wasn't entirely made up by the boy, but with the help of his mother! But why would she do something like this when she was a member (a peace ambassador, for Primus' sake!) of the peace council?

"Prime, I feel that I should be the one to punish the boy in a way that should be, shall we say, _appropriate_." Megatron suggested.

"Don't be too hard on him, Megatron." Optimus replied in agreement.

Megatron smirked before going over to Drake whose eyes widened at the fact that the Decepticon leader towered over him. Jetfire could hear the boy gulp loudly.

"So you say you want to be a soldier?" It was more of a statement than a question. "Then you can start by running laps while I have Cyclonus chase after you. Not only a test of endurance, but survival as well."

Jetfire felt satisfied to see the fearful look on not only Drake's face, but on Alyss' face as well after hearing this. The shuttle mech watched as Megatron started dragging the boy out of the kitchen with Cyclonus eagerly following after them.

"Jetfire."

At this Jetfire looked up at his mother and saw the concerned look on her face as her violet gaze fell on Valerie, whose shivering had calmed down slightly.

"Take Valerie to Red Alert so he can make sure she's okay." Astera told him. "We'll take care of things here."

Jetfire nodded before carrying Valerie out of the kitchen and making his way to the med bay. He knew that Red Alert would be in there and the sooner he got to the med bay, the sooner Valerie could get better. He was still surprised by how cold she felt despite the fact that he'd warmed her up a bit after getting her out of that freezer. Jetfire eventually arrived at the med bay and as soon as he entered he saw Red Alert gazing at him through his visor; whether he was concerned about the 10 year old cradled in his arms or not, the shuttle mech wouldn't know.

"What happened to her, Jetfire?" Red Alert asked, coming over to get a closer look of the shivering girl.

"Drake Ellison locked her inside the freezer in the kitchen. Optimus and the others are dealing with him and his mother." Jetfire told him. "Is Valerie going to be okay?"

"How about you let me scan her first so I can find out _what's _wrong with her before I determine if she'll be okay or not?"

Jetfire sighed as he allowed Red Alert to scan Valerie while he still held her close and after awhile the medic bot lifted his gaze back to his own.

"She seems to have a mild case of hypothermia from being locked inside the freezer. Luckily all we need to do is keep her warm and let her rest, but we would have to remove her clothes."

At this Jetfire's optics widened in shock.

"You're going to _undress _her?" The shuttle mech sputtered.

"Unless you want her to get sick. Last I checked I was the medic around here, not you."

"Fine."

If he had been human, Jetfire mused, his face probably would've been red at the moment. He carefully handed Valerie over to Red Alert before turning around to give his sparkmate the privacy that she deserved (unlike some other mech, despite the fact that said mech was only doing his job).

"You can turn around, you know?" Red Alert asked.

Jetfire turned around to find that Red Alert had wrapped Valerie up in a blanket in order to keep her warm. Her clothes were bunched up in a pile that was likely going to be taken away to be washed and dry He went over to her side and held her small hand in his larger one before watching her turn to him. He could see that she was tired, but wanted to stay awake.

"…Jetfire…" She said quietly, and he could hear that she sounded tired as well.

"I'm here, Skydancer." He told her, smiling a small smile behind his face mask. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired…" Valerie's eyes started drooping a bit. "Please don't leave me…"

Jetfire felt his spark swell at this.

"I won't. I promise."

With that Jetfire watched as Valerie's eyes closed softly and he knew that she was asleep. Despite this he stayed by her side as he continued to hold her small hand. Even through the connection he could feel the peacefulness that she felt as she slept and he took comfort in that, knowing that she was going to be okay.

"Do you realize what time it is, Jetfire?" Red Alert suddenly asked, causing the shuttle mech to look at him.

"No."

"It's around 1 in the morning. You've been in here for more than 8 hours." This surprised Jetfire. He'd be sitting by Valerie's side for 8 hours straight? It hadn't seemed like it had been that long at all. "You should go get some rest in your own quarters."

"I can't." Jetfire told him. "I promised Valerie I wouldn't leave her side."

"I'm sure Valerie would understand. You need to rest as well."

"…Fine. But the first thing I'm doing is coming by here to check on her tomorrow...or later today."

With that Jetfire left the med bay and started making his way to his quarters.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Valerie felt warm as her fuzzy mind started to become more aware and eventually her eyes opened. She found herself wrapped in a blanket in the med bay and at first she wondered how she got here, but then she remembered what happened yesterday. Drake had locked her inside the freezer in the kitchen and then Jetfire brought her here. Jetfire! Valerie looked around the med bay, but she didn't see Jetfire anywhere. Where was he? Was he probably in his own quarters? Looking around again she didn't see Red Alert around either. Maybe she could sneak out and see if she could find Jetfire.

'_But wouldn't I get in trouble if I did?_' She thought.

She was worried about getting in trouble, but she really wanted to be with Jetfire at the moment. Valerie eventually made her decision and carefully got out of the bed she was in, taking the blanket with her as well despite the fact that she was wearing a hospital gown (which was more like a very plain one-piece white dress than its namesake). The 10 year old did her best to be quiet as she left the med bay and she couldn't help feeling worried about somebody finding her. Who wouldn't be worried about getting caught? As she continued down the hallway she was in, Valerie could hear the faint sound of someone talking and realized it was coming from a door a ways away from her. She was curious and carefully went closer to the door, only to have her eyes widened when she realized that the voice was Optimus and that the door led into his office. What's more she saw Astera inside the room as well while the Autobot leader talked to the female transformer.

"It's okay to worry about Valerie's wellbeing, but we both know that she'll fine." Optimus said as if he were trying to reassure Astera. "Red Alert said that she only had a mild case of hypothermia that could easily be treated by keeping her warm."

"I know, Optimus. But that doesn't stop me from worrying about her, and I know Jetfire probably feels the same way as well." Astera told him. After awhile she seemed to calm down a bit. "I'm sorry. It's just that her parents had entrusted both myself and Jetfire with taking care of her for the past 6 years. The reason I'm so worried about her is because she's like a daughter to me and I've come to love her as such." The femme sighed. "I don't think I'll ever be able to forget what happened to her. If Jetfire hadn't found Valerie when he did, then she might've…"

Astera trailed off at this and Optimus took that time to place a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay, Astera. We should be thankful to Primus that Jetfire found her when he did. And I can understand how he feels about this incident."

Valerie watched as Optimus pulled his hand away and turn around so that his back was facing Astera. It was quiet between the two until Astera spoke.

"You're thinking about her." Astera's voice sounded sad.

"…Yes. I don't know where she is or even if she's still alive, but one thing I do know is that I haven't any pain from our connection to know yet. I want to believe that Elita-1 is still out there in the universe, and that someday she'll find her way home again."

"I hope she's still alive as well. There are times I've wished Silverbolt were still around. If he were I know he would've been so proud of Jetfire and the kind of mech he turned out to be. I can still remember the pain my spark felt when he was offlined."

"We both know that Silverbolt is considered a hero ever since he was offlined. He was a good soldier and someone we'll never forget." Optimus turned to Astera. "But there's one thing about Jetfire and Valerie's future marriage that concerns me somewhat."

"You mean her lifespan." Astera stated.

Optimus nodded.

"Humans have a shorter lifespan that we do. And considering the fact that Jetfire and Valerie are the first Cybertronian and human to be sparkmates, that's the only thing that would make it complicated, but not enough to be a problem. I worry for him when the day comes that she…passes on. He'll be sparkbroken, especially after he's bonded to her, and it would be like a repeat of what you went through."

"But Valerie's just a young girl right now."

"True, but she's also human. Humans tend to start courting members of the opposite gender when they reach a certain age, and Valerie will have to be careful about this as she gets older. Drake had already tried to do so, but for his own selfish gains. At least Jetfire had learned about this ahead of time when he confronted the boy last year."

"What would've happened if Jetfire hadn't known about it, only to assume that Valerie might've had feelings for Drake if he found out that he was flirting with her?"

"The result would've been the same for both Jetfire and Valerie if the same thing had happened between the average Cybertronian couple. Jetfire would've gotten jealous or thought Valerie betrayed him and block his end of the connection from her. Because of this rejection, the engagement connection would start to slowly sever itself. As a result she would go through enough grief to regret having met him, and from there she would slowly start to lose all feeling and emotion. She would end up being nothing more than an empty shell unable to do anything but observe, and by the time this happens Valerie would want to be offline, and unless she hasn't been offlined after a day or so, her life will slowly start to fade away. Eventually Jetfire would come to realize his mistake and he'd have to live with the fact that his jealous cost him his future sparkmate. It's a fate worse than just the pain one feels from losing their sparkmate since one can actually feel a void where the connection used to be, as if it never existed in the first place."

Valerie couldn't help the fear and sadness she felt after having heard about this. Would she really end up that way if Jetfire had thought she had feelings for Drake? The 10 year old ended up leaving as quickly and quietly as she could, wanting to find Jetfire as soon as she could. Unknown to Valerie, she had left before she could hear the last part of what Optimus had said: the fact that one could be brought back if one's sparkmate confessed their mistake in order to reestablish the engagement connection between them.

Valerie had a feeling that Jetfire was in his room and she tried so hard to focus on the thought of being with him, but try as she might, she couldn't get herself to forget what she had just learned. What if something like the scenario Optimus explained happened between her and Jetfire? She honestly felt scared about the whole concept, more than she did about her own nightmares.

Valerie soon found herself standing outside Jetfire's quarters and hesitantly reached for the switch that would open the door. She cringed slightly as the door hissed open since the action sounded very loud to her own ears. Even when the door closed behind her after she entered the room made her repeat her actions and even in the dimly lit room she could make out Jetfire's sleeping form laying on his bed (or berth). Quietly, Valerie made her way over to his side and that was when she noticed that he didn't have his gold face mask on that covered most of his face.

Over the 6 years she had known Jetfire and all the time she spent with him, she never once saw what his face really looked like and for the longest time she had wanted to know what he looked like. It was one of those mysteries about her best friend and future husband that she had wanted to uncover, and now was her chance. Yet why did she feel like she was invading his privacy just by finding him like this, despite the fact that she really couldn't see his face due to how dark the room was? Valerie felt hesitant as she lifted her hand up and carefully placed it against his cheek, and she was surprised that his face was warm and smooth it was under her touch. Her stomach was doing flips as she realized what she was doing, yet her curiosity outweighed her nervousness at this time as she lightly ran her fingers along the side of his face.

Suddenly Jetfire's gold optics lit up and they widened in surprise as he gasped as soon as he saw her beside his berth. Before she knew it Valerie found that a hand covered her eyes followed by the sound of metal clinking together.

"Valerie? What are you doing here?" Jetfire asked.

It was at that time that Jetfire removed his hand from covering her eyes and as soon as Valerie could see, she felt slightly disappointed to see that he now had his gold face mask on. She really had wanted to see his face.

"You weren't around when I woke up in the med bay, and neither was Red Alert." Valerie admitted.

"I would've been around to see you wake up if it wasn't for Red Alert kicking me out of the med bay, you know? Otherwise I would've stayed overnight if I had to. But why did you leave the med bay?"

At this Valerie looked away, feeling her face heat up slightly in embarrassment.

"I…wanted to be with you. I didn't like being alone…and I was wondering if you'd let me stay with you."

At this Jetfire chuckled quietly, knowing what it was she was asking.

"Why not?" Valerie watched as Jetfire moved over a bit in order to make room for her. "Get in."

Valerie carefully climbed on top of his berth with the blanket she had still wrapped around her. She couldn't stop herself from blushing when Jetfire wrapped his arms around her and held her close to himself. With the warmth that was coming from his body Valerie could easily say that she wasn't worried about getting cold anytime soon, and she felt so safe in Jetfire's arms as her eyes started drooping. Eventually she ended up falling asleep.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Valerie was jolted awake by the sound of someone knocking on the door from outside Jetfire's quarters. Jetfire groaned at this and she looked up to see that his gold gaze was directed at the metal door.

"Jetfire, are you awake?" Valerie heard Red Alert's voice ask from outside.

"Now I am…" Jetfire replied, making himself sound as if he just woke up before looking at Valerie with an expression in his optics that betrayed what he was really feeling.

_**{Go hide under my berth.} **_He told her telepathically.

Valerie nodded and carefully pulled away from Jetfire before crawling underneath his berth to hide. She already missed his warmth despite still having the blanket wrapped around her.

Jetfire went over to the door before opening it to reveal Red Alert standing outside his quarters.

"Now that you woke me up from recharge, would you mind telling me _why_ you're here?" Jetfire asked.

"When I went to the med bay this morning to check up on Valerie I found that she wasn't there." Red Alert explained.

"And let me guess: you think I had something to do with her disappearance?" Jetfire finished, trying not to laugh. "Sorry, Red, but I haven't seen her since you kicked me out of the med bay."

"I see. In case you do find her, you might want to return these to her."

At this Red Alert pulled out Valerie's clothes from subspace and handed them to Jetfire before leaving. As soon as the door closed the shuttle mech turned towards his berth, a grin forming behind his face mask.

"Okay, it's safe to come out now." Jetfire announced.

Valerie crawled out form her hiding place under Jetfire's berth and saw that the shuttle mech was holding her clothes she wore yesterday, cleaned and neatly folded. Jetfire came over before handing them to her.

"You can go change in the refresher." He pointed in the direction of the door that led into the refresher, which was basically a shower/bathroom for transformers. "We both know that today's gonna be hectic for everyone at the base."

"How come?" Valerie asked, feeling confused.

"Today's one of those days we have those parties we dread. And to make matters worse all the members of the peace council will be there."

Valerie quietly groaned at this. Both she and Jetfire didn't really like the parties that involved the peace members attending (with the only exception being her parents since it was during those times that she got to see them during her stay at the base). Not only did it mean a lot of people (human and transformer alike), but it also meant the media would be around as well. That's why she and Jetfire always snuck out of those parties in favor of gazing at the sky together.

Valerie went inside the refresher to change into her clean clothes before coming back out with the white hospital gown and blanket folded. She definitely felt more comfortable in her own clothes. Jetfire came up to her before scooping her up into his arms and going over to his berth, sitting down with his arms wrapped around her as she sat on his lap. Valerie blushed slightly because of this.

"I didn't exactly get to ask you this when you came in, but how are you feeling?" Jetfire asked.

"I'm fine, Jetfire." Valerie answered. "Just like I was before the incident happened."

"That's good." He chuckled. "I kinda miss you being little, along with being able to carry you around like I used to. You're growing up so fast."

"It doesn't seem like it to me."

"Maybe not to you, but for us Cybertronians it is. I've already told you how my age would be 27 years by human standards and I won't age another human year for thousands of years. By our standards you'd still be considered a newborn sparkling." Jetfire sighed quietly. "Now that I look back on those years, I'm still surprised that you didn't want your parents to leave you here the first time you were brought to the base. And it wasn't until I saved you that you started to trust me completely."

Valerie felt her face warm up as she remembered that day as well.

"I kind of feel bad for not trusting you sooner than I did." Valerie admitted.

"Hey, you were only 4 years old at the time so you didn't know any better. I think we better get going before everyone starts wondering where we are."

It was with that that both Valerie and Jetfire left his quarters. The shuttle mech decided that he would take her to see Astera since his mother was probably still worried about her. As soon as they found the female transformer, Valerie ended up being held close to Astera in a motherly embrace that took her by surprise.

"Valerie, I'm so glad that you're okay!" Astera said. "I was so worried about you."

"I'm sorry, Astera." Valerie said, feeling guilty for making Astera worry about her. "I didn't mean to make you worry about me."

At this Astera pulled away slightly to look at Valerie with her violet optics.

"Why are you apologizing? You have nothing to be sorry for!"

Valerie knew that Astera had a tendency to worry sometimes, but it just showed how compassionate the female transformer was. Suddenly the door to the room they were in opened and Valerie turned around to see Optimus and Megatron walk inside with looks that gave the 10 year old the feeling that something was wrong.

"Optimus? What's wrong?" Astera asked, as if picking up on what the two leaders were feeling.

"We got a bit of a problem that's come up recently." Optimus answered.

"Basically this _problem _of ours chose to rear its ugly head last night."

"What do you—"

Jetfire never got to finish what he was about to say when the monitor in the room turned on, but it was what was on the screen that grabbed their attention.

"**Today's story has been brought to us by someone who wishes to remain anonymous. According to our sources, it would appear that the Autobot Jetfire, who happens to be Optimus Prime's Vice Commander, seems to be very close to Valerie Smith, the daughter of both peace ambassador members Thomas and Sarah Smith. No one is quite sure how long this has been going on, but there are some people that say that this has been going on since Valerie Smith was only 4 years old. That's all we know for now, but as luck may have it the peace council will be attending a party at the transformer base tonight, where it is said that a special announcement will be made. We hope to find out more on this interesting story.**"

By the time the newsperson finished speaking Astera, Jetfire, and Valerie were all shocked, but it was the 10 year old girl that was shocked the most from this news. How was it that the media found out about this? Valerie looked over at Optimus and Megatron and saw that they didn't look surprise, but that was probably due to the fact that they both found out about this first before they came to show them.

"Who could've done this?" Jetfire asked.

"I personally think the answer is obvious." Megatron scoffed. "After all, that witch had been against the idea of having Valerie involved in the peace treaty from the start."

"Megatron sir, I'm right here. I can hear you, you know?" Valerie sighed.

At this Megatron turned to Valerie and only smirked.

"Indeed you are." The Decepticon leader then turned back to Optimus. "The only reason I can think of that Alyss would do this is because I had her son run laps with Cyclonus chasing after him while firing at him as motivation."

"Even if it was punishment, it's still a bit extreme since you put the boy's life at risk. You know we don't harm humans, Megatron." Optimus stated.

"Correction, Autobots don't harm humans, but Decepticons used to do so without hesitation. But we do try to keep the violence to...a minimum. You know I could've done worse to the boy than what I had him go through."

At this Optimus sighed.

"If Mrs. Ellison really is behind this then we need to put a stop to this before it gets out of hand."

"But how?" Astera asked.

"We convince the other ambassadors from making the announcement tonight. If we're successful then the only thing we'd have to worry about is the media being too nosy."

"You know, Prime, there's a simple solution for getting rid of those annoying pit-spawns." Megatron stated.

"_Megatron_!" Astera gasped in horror. "We have a sparkling in this room!"

"Then cover her audio receptors."

Valerie was confused by this. What was so bad about what Megatron said? She didn't hear anything wrong so maybe it was what he was implying that Astera didn't like. Suddenly a pair of hands were placed over her ears and on reflex she wanted to get rid of them.

_**{No, Valerie.}**_ Jetfire told her, making her realize that the hands covering her ears belonged to him.

So Valerie ended up watching as Optimus and Megatron (and occasionally Astera) talk to each other, but she never got to hear what they were saying. Sometimes Jetfire would talk, but it was slightly muffled due to his hands covering her ears. Valerie lost track of how long her ears were covered, but eventually her ears were uncovered and as both Optimus and Megatron were leaving Astera came up to her and Jetfire.

"Earlier this morning your parents called to inform me that they would be coming to the base early so that they can help you get ready for tonight." Astera told her. "They said that they would arrive in a few hours or so."

Valerie couldn't help feeling disappointed by this news. Sure she hardly got to be around her own parents since they were always busy, but it always felt somewhat weird whenever she did get the chance to be with them. It was as if they were strangers to her, yet at the same time they weren't.

"I won't be able to spend time with Jetfire today?" Valerie asked.

"You'll be able to spend time with Jetfire until they arrive. I can understand why you'd think that."

"If that's the case, then I'll just have to steal Skydancer away for now." Jetfire said jokingly.

At this Valerie felt her face heat up slightly. Jetfire grabbed her hand before leading the 10 year old out of the room they were in.

_**{We'll need to plan out how to sneak out of the party without anyone noticing, especially the paparazzi.}**_ Jetfire said.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

The day seemed to pass by so quickly since Valerie found herself standing in the big room the party was being held in. Just like the person had said on the news earlier today, there were a bunch of news reporters around the room, but at the moment they were scattered out since nothing interesting was happening, which was something she was glad about. Another thing she was glad about was that her mother brought her a _blue _dress to wear instead of a _pink_ dress. At least this time she didn't feel as uncomfortable as she usually was since the party wasn't as noisy as they usually were.

Suddenly a loud screeching sound was heard and caused everyone in the room to cringe before turning their attention to where the sound came from. Valerie's eyes widened when she saw that it was Drake's mom, Mrs. Ellison standing at a podium that had a microphone.

"Is this thing on?" She asked, as if testing the microphone before clearing her throat. "On behalf of the peace council I'd like to thank everyone for attending this party. 10 years ago we had learned that the peace council came up with a way to unite both Earth and Cybertron in peace. 'What did they come up with?' you may ask? The answer is that the peace council arranged a marriage between a human and a transformer in order to accomplish this. And as it turns out, Valerie Smith, the daughter of peace ambassador members Thomas and Sarah Smith, and Jetfire, the Autobot Vice Commander, happen to be the two that the peace council chose for this arranged marriage."

Valerie's face went pale at this as she felt fearful. To her, she saw that there was a look to Mrs. Ellison that seemed to show that she was enjoying the fact that _she _was the one that made the announcement about her and Jetfire. Megatron had been right; Mrs. Ellison had been behind this information that had been aired on the news today. She watched anxiously as Mrs. Ellison raised a glass of white wine that she held in her hand.

"A toast…to the peace that Valerie Smith and Jetfire will bring us as a result of their union in the future."

From where Jetfire stood his optics widened when Alyss Ellison turned her gaze to him, a subtle devious yet knowing smile appearing on her face. The woman knew exactly what she was doing and she did so deliberately in spite of what happened to her son, Drake. He had a feeling that she knew that they would try to convince the other peace ambassador members not to make the announcement and took matters into her own hands. Jetfire turned to face Optimus and saw that despite his calm demeanor, his servos were clenched into fists. Megatron was no different, but unlike Optimus his face showed the anger he was feeling as he gritted his dentas. But what surprised Jetfire the most was that even Astera was angry, yet it wasn't as extreme as the Deception leader's expression. It was very rare to see his mother angry, yet he could understand why she would be considering the fact that this was Alyss Ellison they were dealing with. Jetfire concluded that not only the Autobots now hate Alyss, but the Decepticons as well.

Jetfire suddenly noticed the paparazzi were all gathered around in one area like a swarm of bees and his gold optics widened as he realized that was where Valerie was! He started making his way past humans and transformers before having to pushing through the crowd of new reporters just to get to the 10 year old, who looked so anxious and uncomfortable by the fact that they were surrounding her. Didn't those slagging idiots have any _shame _for ganging up on a mere _child_ like this?_! _It made him furious that the media would resort to using any dirty trick they had just so they could get their hands on an overly dramatized (and exaggerated) story! Before he could even speak a word to Valerie the paparazzi started bombarding him with questions. Despite how angry he was by them, Jetfire did his best to keep himself from exploding.

"Just leave us alone!" He told them through gritted dentas before grabbed a hold of Valerie's hand.

_**{We need to get out of here!}**_ He told her, letting her know that it was time from them to leave the base.

Even as they tried to push through the people crowed around them the paparazzi still kept throwing out questions at Jetfire and Valerie.

"What exactly is your relationship with the Autobot Vice Commander?"

"How is it that Thomas and Sarah Smith agreed to such an arrangement?"

"Are you a pedophile?"

Jetfire snapped upon hearing that last question! Whatever control he had on his anger dissolved and before he knew it the shuttle mech had snatched a camera that one of the news reporters had and crushed it within his hand. Because of this the paparazzi went quiet in surprise. Jetfire didn't care what any of them thought of this action, all he wanted was to get his message across to them, a message that was as clear as a day.

"Go away!" Jetfire growled angrily. "You stupid new reporters can't seem to take a hint that_ some_ of us would like to keep our personal lives _personal! _But all you care about is your yellow journalism instead of reporting real issues that are more important than the story you're trying to get at this moment! So just leave us _alone_ and get a life, you glitches!"

"Jetfire!"

Jetfire turned and saw Optimus and Astera trying to get through the crowd of people surrounding them before stopping beside him and Valerie.

"That's enough, Jetfire." Optimus told him calmly. "We'll take care of these news reporters while you get Valerie out of here."

"…Thanks…" Jetfire said quietly before dragging Valerie through the crowd in order to get away from the party and out of the base.

Valerie was relieved when she and Jetfire managed to get away from the party. She hadn't liked how overwhelmed she felt when the media went after her like they did not too long ago, but what surprised her was the way Jetfire reacted to the last question they asked him. She had never seen him act that way (let alone being angry like that) and what scared her was when he destroyed one of the news reporters' s with just one hand! To think that he could've been capable of crushing her while hugging her if he were angry enough. It scared her a bit to even consider it. Eventually Valerie and Jetfire made it outside the base and she knew they would be flying out to a secluded location, but when he wrapped his arms around her Valerie tensed up a bit. This ended up confusing Jetfire.

"What's wrong, Skydancer?" He asked.

Valerie looked up and saw the concern look in Jetfire's gold optics as he gazed down at her.

"Don't hurt me." Valerie said quietly.

She watched as Jetfire's optics widened in surprise.

"What? I'm not going to hurt you! I would never hurt you intentionally! The only reason I did that back there was just to scare the media off."

Valerie was quiet as she wrapped her arms around Jetfire before he flew off. She couldn't help but think of that question the media asked.

"You got angry because of that last question the media asked." Valerie stated, causing Jetfire to glance at her. "Why?

"Because they asked if I was a pedophile." He replied.

"What's a pedophile?"

At this Jetfire sighed, knowing that he was going to have to explain this to the 10 year old. This was going to be awkward.

"A pedophile is someone who's an adult that has romantic feelings for children or those that haven't reached adulthood. It's…not exactly easy to explain. I found it insulting that they would think I was one just because you're engaged to me."

"Do the council members know that we're sparkmates?"

"No. All they know is that I only offered to marry you just to unite Earth and Cybertron in peace. The only humans that know about us being sparkmates are yourself and your parents. They want to keep it under wraps, and now that the paparazzi knows about our engagement we have to be extra careful from this point on."

Valerie and Jetfire soon arrived at the place they always went to whenever they snuck away from any parties at the base. Ever since he brought her here the first time, the 10 year old loved the place since it was so quiet and peaceful. Valerie sat down on the grass next to Jetfire as he draped an arm around her shoulders to keep her close to him. She always ended up blushing whenever he did this, but every time she would eventually get comfortable about it since she would remind herself that it was just the two of them.

"Jetfire?" Valerie asked, and the shuttle mech gazed down at her to show that she had his attention. "Last night you freaked out when you woke up to find me in your room. But why did you cover my eyes as if I saw something I wasn't supposed to see?"

Jetfire's optics widened in surprise and he felt his spark pulse quicken from Valerie's question. He could remember what happened last night very clearly since she had been so close to seeing his face, and he could recall feeling her soft hand on his cheek before he woke up.

"It's a long story." Jetfire told her.

"We have time."

Jetfire sighed.

"Because you saw me without my face mask. You weren't supposed to see my face, even if you couldn't really see it in the dark."

"Why do you always wear it? And why won't you let me see your face?"

"I'll be honest with you. I'm sensitive about showing my face. Most of all, I'm not sure what you'd think if you saw it."

Valerie giggled, seeing how silly Jetfire's reason was.

"Jetfire! I've known you most of my life, yet you're worried about what I'd think if I saw your face? Your face can't be that bad."

A small smile formed behind Jetfire's face mask. Valerie may have been shy, but there were times when her curiosity would show and this happened to be one of those times. He knew she wouldn't judge him if he showed her his face, but he wasn't ready to do so yet.

'_But someday I'll have to_.' He thought.

"True, but you never know. The entire universe could be destroyed as soon as my face is revealed." He joked. "But all jokes aside, I'm not exactly ready to show you my face yet. But I promise that you'll get to see it when we're bonded."

"Bonded?" Valerie asked.

"Getting bonded is the same thing as getting married for Cybertronians, but different. For one it's irreversible once two sparkmates have bonded, so that means no divorce. Secondly, the bonding process is done privately in a secluded place between the two sparkmates where they can be alone."

"What happens next?"

Jetfire tensed up slightly at this. Just how many more awkward moments would there be tonight? And he thought telling her what pedophiles were was bad enough.

"Well…when two sparkmates _really_ love each other…"

Jetfire deliberately trailed off so that he could see Valerie's face turn red as she realized where this conversation was going. He knew that she finally figured out what he was talking about and this only added to the awkwardness that they both felt at that moment.

"_T-that's_ how we're getting _married_?" She asked, her face expression her shock and embarrassment from learning this. "W-we're supposed to get bonded to each other?"

"Sadly, yes. I told you that marriage for Cybertronians is different than the average marriage that you humans have, and we'll basically be mated for life. What's also different is the whole 'age of consent' concept since Cybertronian couples can get bonded as long as either of them is passed the age of being in their sparkling years. By human standards you'd be considered a youngling, and a sparkling by Cybertronian standards, but we'd both be able to get bonded to each other at this point in time."

Valerie's face got even warmer by this and she turned away to look at the ground, suddenly finding it interesting to look at. She heard Jetfire sigh as he realized what she was feeling.

"We don't have to get bonded now, Skydancer. I can wait." Jetfire placed his hand on the side of her face and had her look up at him. She ended up finding herself captivated by his gold optics that she could look at all day if she could. "I want you to close your eyes for me."

Valerie wanted to ask why, but she ended up doing what he said and closed her eyes. She wasn't sure what to expect and suddenly she was taken by surprise when she felt warm lips being pressed against hers. They were smooth and felt so foreign to her, yet at the same time they weren't and she found that she liked the feeling. That was when she realized that the lips kissing her belonged to Jetfire and her heart seemed to beat against her ribcage and her stomach seemed to do flips.

But soon it came to an end and she felt Jetfire placed a hand over her eyes to cover them as she heard the sound of metal clinking together before the hand was removed. Valerie blushed as soon as she saw Jetfire gazing at her and she lowered her eyes, suddenly feeling bashful.

"Did you just…"

"Kiss you?" Jetfire finished. "I did. Is there a problem?"

"N-no, it's just…I've never."

Jetfire realized what Valerie as getting at and chuckled lightly.

"I get it. First time and all. This was my first time as well, but what I don't get is why you humans make such a big deal about having your first kiss."

"Different cultures, different rules…?" Valerie asked.

"Probably." Valerie looked up at Jetfire just as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. "It doesn't really matter now. All that matters is that we're together and someday we'll get married."

"I'm not sure if I'll be ready or not."

"Really? Because I believe that you will be ready when that day comes, but for now we can continue to enjoy moments like this together."

Both Valerie and Jetfire looked at the sky to see all the stars that were shining in the vast blackness. Maybe Jetfire was right, she thought. Maybe she would be ready when the day came that they would get married, but until then she could continue to spend her time with him to a whole new extent. What would the future hold for them as they continued to live their lives day by day? All Valerie knew was that she wouldn't know until she found out.

THE END

* * *

><p>ATE: So this chapter officially makes Time In Between a complete story that'll apply to Swan's Love. I tried my best to use points from Swan's Love to cover throughout this story, while <strong>Crystalmaiden62<strong> made references to this chapter in the last chapter of Swan's Love (the freezer incident). Originally I wasn't going to have Drake make another appearance, but then **Crystalmaiden62** and I really couldn't see a way around it, so I'm gonna have to give a huge high five for **Sailor** **Shinzo **for calling it! I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to read this story and give it a chance.

Please remember to review! ;D


End file.
